Advance offers an unrivalled breadth of services for people with disabilities or mental health conditions, including housing, specialist support, brokerage and employment.
From our beginnings in 1974 we have enabled people to live the lives they choose at home, at work or in the community.
Advance works with more than 4,000 people across 42 local authority areas.
We are proud to support the Rethink Your Mind project as part of our commitment to innovative practices and initiatives in the field of recovery and mental health.
We also support SISO with funding and staff expertise.
In 2008 mental health service users from Genesis (Leicester City) and the People’s Forum (Leicestershire County and Rutland) embarked on a pilot research study – not only giving service users a voice but being that voice.
From the success of the study came the Service User and Carer Research Audit Network (SUCRAN), led by a Steering Group of service users and carers, with support from De Montfort University, the group now employs a Project Manager and a pool of more than 30 interviewers.
The ethos of the project is that all interviewers are service users and carers themselves. Survey participants feel supported and less intimidated being interviewed by peers and more people opt into the survey thus producing robust evidence based research and enhanced richness of results.
Our aim is to bring about, by our findings, a shift in culture toward service user centered care.
Those involved in the project derive huge benefit too. They are employed as research interviewers by De Montfort University having completed interviews, training, CRB and occupational health checks.
In additional to feeling empowered and gaining valuable work experience service users and carers are supported by peers, the project team, academics, welfare rights and have access to psychological support and interpreter services.
Every stage of the process from questionnaire design to data analysis and report writing is service user and carer led – real involvement.
Humber NHS Foundation Trust. We provide a comprehensive range of healthcare services in Hull and the East Riding and specialist mental health services to people from across the UK.
Our services are delivered by over 3,000 staff across a core area of approximately 2,400km2 to a local population of approximately 600,000. We have more than 500 committed volunteers.
We specialise in delivering:
Inpatient and community mental health services for adults and older people
Child and adolescent mental health services
Community health services in the East Riding of Yorkshire (including children’s services (e.g. health visiting, school nursing), long-term conditions, palliative care, urgent care including minor injuries and out of hours and a range of therapies)
Learning disability services
Addiction services
Psychological therapy services
Forensic services for mental health, learning disability patients and personality disorder patients
NHS Choices is the UK’s biggest health website. It provides a comprehensive health information service that puts users in control of their healthcare.
The website helps users make choices about their health, from decisions about their lifestyle, such as smoking, drinking and exercise, to finding and using NHS services in England.
NHS Choices includes around 20,000 regularly updated articles. There are also hundreds of thousands of entries in more than 50 directories that can be used to find and choose health services in England.
Clare Walker is an expert in the field of domestic abuse & has been training professionals UK wide since 2006.
Clare set up the first Freedom Programme victims support group in Leicester in 2004.
Domestic abuse crosses all classes, ages, ethnicities, religions, cultures, races or lifestyles. The Freedom Programme demystifies domestic abuse in all its entirety.
This is most common in heterosexual intimate relationships, male perpetrator and female victim, but by no means solely.
The Freedom Programme model is based on human behaviours, therefore we can all identify with a lot of the tactics.
The difference in an abusive relationship is that the abuser has an agenda, which is to gain power & control of another.
The first step toward recovery is being able to identify that we’re in an abusive relationship – the Freedom Programme educates us so we can see those relationships for what there are.
Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust (SHSC)
Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust (SHSC) has a strong and long standing commitment to the use of arts and creativity in supporting recovery from mental illness and promoting mental wellbeing.
“Inspired Minds”, SHSC’s strategy for arts in health wellbeing and social inclusion was adopted by the Trust Board in December 2010.
SHSC has supported the development of the Creative Arts Steering Team (CAST) and developed partnerships with organisation such as Breakthrough, Reflections in Art charity and the Storying Sheffield project at University of Sheffield.
Service users’ artwork is now displayed on information leaflets, on the Trust website, on corporate plans and reports.
It is also displayed on “gallery walls” throughout the Trust.
The role played by art, music and drama in the Recovery Event in October 2011 also marked a recognition of the role that these approaches can play in wellbeing and inclusion.
The Sheffield Arts and Wellbeing Network was launched with a conference on 2nd November 2012.
This marked a commitment by SHSC, Sheffield City Council, the University of Sheffield and a host of local arts organisations, individuals and voluntary bodies to further collaboration on providing inclusive arts opportunities.
MindFull is a national charity helping young people to improve and sustain positive mental health, emotional resilience and wellbeing.
We provide 11-17 year olds with tailored online support to improve their wellbeing and mental health.
Young people can access professional counselling support, expert information, advice and resources provided by mental health professionals, self help tools and peer mentoring support, in real-time, via www.mindfull.org.
We train MindFull Mentors, developing their emotional resilience, while also equipping them with tools and advice they can share with young people to improve their wellbeing.
We campaign to raise the importance of wellbeing and mental health amongst young people, parents, government and professionals.
In today’s Britain no one should ever feel under threat of verbal abuse or physical violence just because of their disability, transgender (gender identity), race, religion or belief, or sexual orientation.
The risk of being attacked or abused on the street, at work or in their own home just because of who they are remains an everyday reality for many people.
If hate incidents go unreported this fear will increase and affects people’s ability to live open and happy lives.
Stamp It Out! is a community led partnership bringing together different groups and organisations all committed to challenging, tackling and stamping out hate within Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.
The Leicester based Citizens Eye’s community news agency has a mental health news agency called How Are You Today?
The meetings take place the first Sunday of every month at the Phoenix Square Film 7 Digital Media Centre in Leicester.
The informal meetings begin at 2.00 pm and last for about an hour in the relaxing cafe surroundings.
For those who are interested in attending, the purpose of the group is really to discuss mental health and its plethora of issues, provide what personal support we can and try to address some of the discrimination and stigma that accompanies this whole area.
The meeting is open to anyone with an interest in mental health. There is no compulsion or pressure to talk and people can be as open or ‘closed’ as they wish. It is very informal.
You can find out more on our facebook page ‘How Are You Today?’ or on the Citizens Eye site
