Advance is a national support provider and registered Housing Association, providing services to more than 4000 people across many parts of England, including more than 2000 people with mental health problems.
We provide places to live for people with learning disabilities or mental health problems.
We also provide support for people so they can live their lives the way they want.
We give employment advice for people with disabilities who want to get into work.
We have been closely involved with SISO since 2009 when Advance staff and customers brought it into being, have provided funding and guidance ever since, and are delighted that this exciting project has come so far.
We continue to be linked with SISO as a Community Interest Company, with several staff representing Advance at Board level; and we promote its activities on our website and at local and national events.
Aspiro is a not for profit social enterprise that provides employment advice and support for adults with a lived experience of mental ill health or a learning disability.
We provide most of our services through regular Employment Clinics across Leicester city, Leicestershire and Rutland.
All our services are free and people can self refer or ask their CPN, Social Worker, other professional or carer to contact us.
We also provide mentoring, a weekly Job Club, plus employability (group based) courses, to help with motivation and confidence building, job applications and interview skills.
We have helped over 100 people into work: half are in paid jobs and the rest are volunteering or doing work placements.
We work in partnership with Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust and work locally with Jobcentre Plus.
The Carers Centre (LeicesterShire & Rutland) offers a range of services. Supporting carers across Leicester City, Leicestershire and Rutland. We can offer:
Advocacy support and representation
Community-based advice (including home visits)
Telephone/email advice and support
Emotional support
Carers groups and forums
Regular newsletters/mailshots
Consultation with carers and professionals on a range of carers’ issues
Partnership with a range of organisations to promote the needs of carers
Promote carer involvement in planning of carers’ services.
There is a regular drop-in on Tuesday mornings from 9.30am-12.30pm and some Saturdays (by appointment).
The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) helps children and young people who have been referred by another healthcare professional.
Referrals are made if it’s thought the child or young person has emotional and/or behavioural difficulties at a level which requires specialist support.
We provide a range of services including initial assessments, therapy, group work, emergency assessments and in-patient care.
How can you access our service?
• Speak to your GP or Paediatrician • Speak to your Educational Psychologist – if you have one • Speak to a Social Worker – if you have one
Both ‘Akwaaba’ and ‘Ayeh’ mean WELCOME in Akan (spoken in Ghana) and Hindi (spoken in South Asia).
Akwaaba Ayeh’s main purpose is to help and empower Black (a collective term used to describe client groups who originate from South Asia (i.e.India, Pakistan and Bangladesh) Africa and the Caribbean, and their carers experiencing/living with mental illness, from the very acute to a mild emotional imbalance.
Advocacy is provided to the client groups identified above living in the City. Other services provided include:
Representation at Mental Health Review Tribunals, providing sufficient information as to enable choice, liaising with other related agencies.
Providing information, advice and guidance in relation to employment, training, finances and support.
The People’s Forum is run by and for service users to consult with and represent the views of mental health service users across Leicestershire and Rutland.
Our aim is to ensure that you have a voice and that your views, opinions and ideas about mental health services are listened to. Through this we inform and influence the planning and delivery of mental health services.
We can keep you informed and involved through our quarterly newsletter, circulating consultation information and signposting engagement activities.
We meet every month to discuss current mental health issues and we visit wards, and meetings around the county to canvass views and share the work we are doing.
Members benefit from peer support and feel empowered.
To make sure your voice is heard contact the People’s Forum on:
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.
Volunteering is proven to help maintain a positive mental health and also aid recovery after experiencing a mental health difficulty.
People who take part in volunteering see improvements in their own wellbeing as they have a more active social circle, a sense of feeling valued and also experience an increase in confidence.
It is also a good stepping stone for people who are thinking of getting back into paid employment.
Volunteers get involved in a wide range of roles in the Trust including:
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.
