Recovery Group Information Day

Service User trainers wanted to co-facilitate recovery groups. For more information and to apply
please click on the link below.

http://liveitwell.org.uk/docs/blogs/blog_ashford/Recovery%20Group%20poster.pdf

Speakup CIC Peer Support Activities Diary for December 2012

Please click on the link below:

http://iveitwell.org.uk/blogs/blog_ashford/Peer%20Support%20activities-%20December%20%2012%20word%2097-03.pdf

Speakup CIC Winter Newsletter 2012

Grab a cuppa, put your feet up and have a read of all that Speakup CIC have been up to and have planned, enjoy! Includes lots of information on what's on over Christmas.
Click on the link below,

http://liveitwell.org.uk/docs/blogs/blog_ashford/Speakup%20CIC%20winter.newsletter.2012..pdf

Mental Health Support/Action Event at Maidstone on 25th January

MIND are running these national events on the themes of campaigning and influencing the new NHS structures and the tools people need to effectively do so, to showcase peer support research, highlighting interesting and innovative projects, and to look at challenging discrimination through workshops run by Time to Change champions.

The Kent event will be in Maidstone. For further details and to book a place please click on the link below:

http://liveitwell.org.uk/docs/blogs/blogs_all/Take%20mental%20health%20action_A5_v8.pdf

VULNERABLE COMMUNITIES IN EAST KENT
 
Rethink are conducting a project on vulnerable communities and would be grateful if as many people as possible could complete the survey below to help them gather information.
 
Please click on the link http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/T925F6W

Thank you in advance.

Patients' Council at the Arundel Unit

To be held monthly on the wards at the Arundel Unit, Ashford. Come along to get involved and make your voice heard.

Tuesdays @ 1pm onwards.

2^nd October, 2012

6^th November, 2012

4^th December, 2012

For more information

Contact Maggie

Or Amanda on

01843 609 359

Ashford Service Users' Forum

Have your say. Come along and share your experiences of using Mental Health Services in a warm friendly atmosphere.

We meet at the Live-it-Well Centre,

Canterbury Road, Ashford, TN24 8QF

Tuesdays @ 11-12pm on;

2^nd October, 2012

6^th November, 2012

4^th December, 2012

10^th October 2012,

World Mental Health

Awareness Day 9am-4pm

County square shopping centre

If you need any more information

Contact Amanda on

01843 609359 or E-mail

Amanda@speakupcic.co.uk

We are looking at how to improve services for people in a mental health crisis. We launched a public consultation on mental health crisis care services in July and want to hear people’s views. The deadline for responses is 26 October and we’d be grateful if anyone  who uses or is involved with mental health services would please complete this survey.

Here is a short film on our YouTube channel which explains what the proposals are and why they are needed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PNHI91ovVs

Here is the link to the online survey to have your say: http://www.kmpt.nhs.uk/adultacuteconsultation

There’s also more information on the KMPT website: http://www.kmpt.nhs.uk/acute-mental-health-review

Many thanks for your help.

Emily Turner

Communications and Media Manager

NHS Kent and Medway

Brook House

John Wilson Business Park

Whitstable

CT5 3DD

Speakup CIC Autumn Newsletter

Speakup CIC have published their colourful and informative Autumn Newsletter - 28 pages of news, views, information, photos and articles.

World Mental Health Day Event 2012

On World Mental Health Day, 10 October, come along and join in with SpeakUpCIC, Rethink, KCA and Ashford Counselling in raising awareness of Mental Health Issues and fighting stigma.

Find us in Ashford at the County Square Shopping Centre outside Costa’s from 9am-4pm.

For more information email Amanda or call 01843 609 359

Rethink East Kent Carers Support - Carers Education Programme

Rethink East Kent Carers Support (EKCS) announce a programme of four workshops designed specifically for carers, where you can broaden your knowledge of mental health, enhance your positive thinking and motivation, and learn some relaxation techniques to improve the quality of your life.

These workshops are free for all carers and lunch will be included. The workshops will take place in Ashford at the Ashford Live It Well Centre
Schedule

1st June – “Managing Obsessive-Compulsive Tendencies”
8th June – “Coping  with Anxiety and Panic  Attacks”
22nd June – “Coping with Depression”
29th June – “Managing Suicidal Thoughts and Self-Harm”

Facilitator: Elena Ward – Senior Mental Health Recovery Worker

Guest Speakers: Yasmin Ishaq – Manager of EIP (Early Intervention in Psychosis) team and mental health professionals from the EIP Team.

Please confirm whether you will be able to attend any of these workshops as we need to know how many people to cater for. Email Elena Ward or call 01843 229422 or 07973773486

Draft LPMG minutes online

Draft minutes of the March 2012 Ashford LPMG meeting have been published. They contain a presentation from Philippa MacDonald of KMPT on the Acute Services Update, with extensive questions and comments.

KMPT Foundation Trust Public Engagement Event

The Kent and Medway Partnership Trust (KMPT) are holding a series of events to enable the public, some of whom will be service users and carers, to open up a dialogue with members of KMPT's Executive team in finding out about the values, visions and future plans of the organisation, and how this inter-links with KMPT's application to become a Foundation Trust.

The East Kent event is on 11 April, 18:30 - 20:30, at

Anselm Hall (Main North Campus),
Canterbury Christ Church University
Homes Road, Canterbury
CT1 1QU

Service user and carer involvement - 15 Steps Challenge

We all know that first impressions count and when walking on to a hospital ward the first “15 Steps” will give you an impression of what is happening on the ward. The NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement are developing the 15 Steps Challenge, a tool to support ward walk arounds, looking at productive wards from the patient perspective. The programme identifies simple things like protecting meal times, protecting drug rounds and preventing interruptions at staff handovers.

The Strategic Health Authority (SHA) are working with mental health trusts across the south of England in developing this tool for mental health, as it was originally developed for Acute Trusts. The Kent & Medway Partnership Trust (KMPT) have adapted this tool slightly to fit in with the productive mental health ward and will be part of the SHA’s work, but in the meantime will use the tool developed.

The process will be that a team of people consisting of non-executive directors, carers and services users, directors, service managers etc. will visit one to two wards every month to audit against the 15 steps criteria (no more that 4 people will be in any team). A programme will be produced and co-ordinated through the Compliance and Risk Management Team who will also work in getting teams together. A briefing session will then be delivered by the Deputy Director of Nursing to the teams.

The dates for the team briefings aimed at a more in-depth explanation of the process are 11th April in Canterbury at 2pm for 90 minutes &10th April at West Malling at 2pm for 90 minutes.

Anyone interested in getting involved in the team visits should contact Janet Lloyd, PPCI Manager Kent & Medway Partnership Trust, via email or on 01227 812034

Are you a mental health service user or carer?

Would you like to ask a question or raise an issue about Kent & Medway Partnership Trust (KMPT) services with senior management?


Andy Oldfield, Assistant Director for East Kent Community Services

Cathy Nyemeck, Service Manager for Canterbury, Coastal & Swale Recovery Services

Michelle Webb, Service Manager for Canterbury, Coastal & Swale Access Services

will be available to talk to you on 30th May 2012, from 2.30pm - 4:30pm

at

Main Hall, St Martin’s Hospital,
Littlebourne Road, Canterbury, CT1 1AZ

East Kent Carers Support newsletter

East Kent Carers Support - part of Rethink Mental Illness - have published a newsletter full of valuable information and articles.