LONG-TERM support for people with mental health issues is on offer as part of a pioneering project.

But funding is needed to secure the scheme for the future and help expand the number of residents who can be offered help.

The mentoring project was the brainchild of Headgym counsellor Neil Ordish and Elaine Grant, Early Help funding and family learning development co-ordinator, both members of the Redditch Mental Health Action Group.

They attracted the support of Andrea Maddocks, chief executive of Mentorlink which now administrates the scheme, and Global Harmony life coach Beth Haining, who has been leading the mentoring along with Neil, as well as The Space in Winyates and Bromford who provide rooms for the mentoring to take place in.

They are currently halfway through a six-month pilot, with ten residents being given weekly sessions either face-to-face, over the phone or through internet video calling programme Skype thanks to funding from the Redditch and Bromsgrove Clinical Commissioning Group. A further ten people are now being enrolled on the pilot while organisers search for long-term funding.

Mr Ordish said: “The service came about from going to the first MHAG meeting and seeing the amount of confusion, tension and anger in the room. I came out of it thinking there must be something which can be done here.

“A lot of people seem to be frustrated with getting the right sort of support or knowing where to go for support. I spoke to a lot of people who I work with through Headgym and they said they needed some sort of long-term support and that’s why it started.”

Positive results are already being seen, with some people returning to work after being unemployed for years while others are overcoming addictions, tackling problems and beginning to approach different areas of their lives in a more positive way.

“We need more funding to enable this proven mechanism to work long-term. All the options currently on offer are short-term and quite often people find themselves back in the same place once that intervention has finished, while some people are unable to get any support at all,” Mr Ordish added.

“The funding we attract will be used to try and ensure people don’t re-enter the system so it’s actually saving money in the long term and will get people out of the doctor’s waiting room.”

Read more: Mentor scheme needs funding | Redditch Standard

Community action mental health support group

The people of Redditch have set up their own support group for people who have mental health issues, the group came about following the creation of the mental health action group It became clear that there was a lack of support and information for those who may need help;
some support was being accessed however there appeared to be no clear guide on where to get help and what help there was.
The support group has been running for almost a year now and meets on a weekly basis, meetings are informal and friendly and all are welcome. The group numbers vary and so do the discussions, attendees may have issues such as depression, anxiety, lack confidence or self esteem. Each week is different we have guest speakers; advice on services, informal shared experiences, personal development training, meditation and are open to any suggestions.
The great thing about the group is that they really do support each other if somebody wants to share an issue people who may have had similar experiences are there to offer support and guidance. Any discussions within the group are totally confidential and non judgemental, it really is a great support network.
I will blog updates from the group and share our learning’s, no names will be given and no confidentiality will be breached
This week we had a short audio presentation provided by one of the group, the audio had been provided by an organisation called NO PANIC http://www.nopanic.org.uk/ and ran through some techniques for dealing with anxiety using relaxation and visualisation. This organisation can be found on the web they provide support and advice for a variety of anxiety disorders. The audio had some good techniques for positive thinking which the group found beneficial, this bought about a discussion around keeping positive and how sometimes this can feel almost impossible. The conversation continued and we had some interesting suggestions around perception and focus, in summary we recognised that sometimes our perception of things may be a little out of sync. We also noticed that sometimes our focus and language may be taking us in the wrong direction. I have decided to write a blog about each of these areas separately as each one could be a whole study subject itself, look out for Perception, focus and language blog coming soon.