Mental health services in Macclesfield are undergoing so much change at the moment, but it's not too difficult to know where to begin... and that's to say that after 5 years service with Macc day care services, Manager PETER G WILKINSON has retired today, with many good wishes from staff, volunteers and service users from past and present.
It was a double celebration as Peter's wife, Linda, has also retired from her job with the Child and Adolescents' Mental Health Service (CAMHS). Peter will continue as a Public and Patient rep for the PPI and governor for the Foundation Trust.
We wish them both the very best for their well-earned retirement, they have contributed so much to mental health recovery in east Cheshire.
Here's to their future!
Thursday, 30 September 2010
We're Back!!!
After various problems in the last 12 months, we've been a bit patchy with our posts! But we're please to say we're back on track for the future of mental health recovery!!
Tuesday, 4 May 2010
The Willows Christmas Party 2009
TUESDAY 4th MAY 2010
The 2009 Christmas party was held at the Macclesfield Conservative and Unionist Club on Wednesday 9th December. The occasion proved popular, with over fifty clients and most of the staff from the Willows in attendance. It featured a number of activities, including carol singing (with accompaniment from Steve Ramsbottom on his electronic keyboard), a raffle, disco dancing, a festive quiz and a splendid buffet of assorted sandwiches and savouries. In order to gain entry, each client was required to purchase a ticket beforehand for a fee of £3. This helped to cover the cost of staging the event, and also entitled the holder entry into a prize draw (or raffle). Each ticket had the name of each individual client and a number on it. Numbers were then drawn out of a container. The bulk of the prizes were divided up according to gender - that is those deemed more suitable for men and those more suited to women - whilst some were for either sex. Prizes were also on offer to the winner and runner up in the festive quiz, for both the men and women who took part. Jason Ogden was the male winner and received a sweatshirt, whilst the male runner-up was Stephen Gregory, who won toiletries. As for the female contingent, it was Christine Garret who scored highest, with Michelle Dale coming second. Both won toiletries.
The Willow's very own Nikki Cottrill, programme co-ordinator, merits a special mention here as she was by far the most enthusiastic and competent dancer to take to the floor (although not many did!)
The 2009 Christmas party was held at the Macclesfield Conservative and Unionist Club on Wednesday 9th December. The occasion proved popular, with over fifty clients and most of the staff from the Willows in attendance. It featured a number of activities, including carol singing (with accompaniment from Steve Ramsbottom on his electronic keyboard), a raffle, disco dancing, a festive quiz and a splendid buffet of assorted sandwiches and savouries. In order to gain entry, each client was required to purchase a ticket beforehand for a fee of £3. This helped to cover the cost of staging the event, and also entitled the holder entry into a prize draw (or raffle). Each ticket had the name of each individual client and a number on it. Numbers were then drawn out of a container. The bulk of the prizes were divided up according to gender - that is those deemed more suitable for men and those more suited to women - whilst some were for either sex. Prizes were also on offer to the winner and runner up in the festive quiz, for both the men and women who took part. Jason Ogden was the male winner and received a sweatshirt, whilst the male runner-up was Stephen Gregory, who won toiletries. As for the female contingent, it was Christine Garret who scored highest, with Michelle Dale coming second. Both won toiletries.
The Willow's very own Nikki Cottrill, programme co-ordinator, merits a special mention here as she was by far the most enthusiastic and competent dancer to take to the floor (although not many did!)
Tuesday, 19 May 2009
Crazy Guy!?!
Recently I answered a knocking at my front door. Nothing unusual maybe, but for two aspects. First of all, not so long ago, I would probably have had a crippling panic attack and not been able to answer the door due to a nervous breakdown. Secondly, it was 5 o’clock on a Sunday morning!
Thinking it was one of my brothers, who has turned up in the middle of the night before and who’d already paid an ‘out-of-the-blue’ visit (albeit at 8pm) only 3 days earlier, I reluctantly but calmly went to answer. It crossed my mind to take my now disused walking stick with me, but thought, “No, it’s my brother”.
With this assurance, I simply opened the door and in walked a complete stranger. In his early 20s, over 6 foot and with the appearance of a football thug, and quite clearly ‘off his head’ on something, he asked if someone called Adam was in. I gently tried to ease him back out of the door, explaining that he was in the wrong house, but he forcefully pushed me back and continued inside. (He asked me what I thought I was doing!)
Remembering the advice of the Police Community Support Officers when they visited Rosemount, I went outside. Before waking up my next door neighbour, a policeman, I continued to calmly ask him to leave, telling him that I have been seriously physically ill, and had suffered a nervous breakdown, to see if this would defuse the situation. Soon, he followed me outside, and after being asked to leave again, walked away, calling me a “crazy f***er”.
Excuse me? I have been through sheer hell in my life, with not only a long-term debilitating, near-fatal illness and its related complications, but with painful and fairly extreme family hardship and heartache piled on top of that. And although I’ve suffered mental health problems as a result, my mind has been so strong it has come through intact.
During the last few years I have received the help of mental health services, such as Rosemount Recovery Plus and a Cognitive Behaviour Therapist. I have also met so many fantastic people who have been friendly and supportive, and who show me again and again how talented, worthy and (in its positive sense) normal we all are despite just happening to have mental health issues, which are almost as many and as varied as ourselves.
With all this, I have made considerable progress in getting back to being able to live my life, now being a full time volunteer and being able to gain qualifications. I just need help getting my home cleaned up and repaired, which is currently being organised by the Primary Care Support Team.
My nocturnal visitor, however, is so mentally incapable that he puts himself in a position where he walks into a stranger’s home at 5 in the morning, and is so emotionally retarded that he becomes aggressive and abusive. Depending on my behaviour, or of course on anyone else whose house he might have chosen, he could have ended up anywhere between being dead or in hospital, to being in prison for trespass, assault or manslaughter or murder, being told that he requires psychiatric treatment.
Mental illness is just like any other illness: it is a normal part of life and we all experience it to different degrees and frequencies. I have long thought that those suffering the worst and most dangerous of these conditions, or to quote, most truly “crazy”, are those who are so ignorant that they try to convince themselves they are impervious to mental ill health, yet are so scared of the possibility that they throw up walls of denial and react with hostility and childish name-calling.
I know who I feel safer with.
Thinking it was one of my brothers, who has turned up in the middle of the night before and who’d already paid an ‘out-of-the-blue’ visit (albeit at 8pm) only 3 days earlier, I reluctantly but calmly went to answer. It crossed my mind to take my now disused walking stick with me, but thought, “No, it’s my brother”.
With this assurance, I simply opened the door and in walked a complete stranger. In his early 20s, over 6 foot and with the appearance of a football thug, and quite clearly ‘off his head’ on something, he asked if someone called Adam was in. I gently tried to ease him back out of the door, explaining that he was in the wrong house, but he forcefully pushed me back and continued inside. (He asked me what I thought I was doing!)
Remembering the advice of the Police Community Support Officers when they visited Rosemount, I went outside. Before waking up my next door neighbour, a policeman, I continued to calmly ask him to leave, telling him that I have been seriously physically ill, and had suffered a nervous breakdown, to see if this would defuse the situation. Soon, he followed me outside, and after being asked to leave again, walked away, calling me a “crazy f***er”.
Excuse me? I have been through sheer hell in my life, with not only a long-term debilitating, near-fatal illness and its related complications, but with painful and fairly extreme family hardship and heartache piled on top of that. And although I’ve suffered mental health problems as a result, my mind has been so strong it has come through intact.
During the last few years I have received the help of mental health services, such as Rosemount Recovery Plus and a Cognitive Behaviour Therapist. I have also met so many fantastic people who have been friendly and supportive, and who show me again and again how talented, worthy and (in its positive sense) normal we all are despite just happening to have mental health issues, which are almost as many and as varied as ourselves.
With all this, I have made considerable progress in getting back to being able to live my life, now being a full time volunteer and being able to gain qualifications. I just need help getting my home cleaned up and repaired, which is currently being organised by the Primary Care Support Team.
My nocturnal visitor, however, is so mentally incapable that he puts himself in a position where he walks into a stranger’s home at 5 in the morning, and is so emotionally retarded that he becomes aggressive and abusive. Depending on my behaviour, or of course on anyone else whose house he might have chosen, he could have ended up anywhere between being dead or in hospital, to being in prison for trespass, assault or manslaughter or murder, being told that he requires psychiatric treatment.
Mental illness is just like any other illness: it is a normal part of life and we all experience it to different degrees and frequencies. I have long thought that those suffering the worst and most dangerous of these conditions, or to quote, most truly “crazy”, are those who are so ignorant that they try to convince themselves they are impervious to mental ill health, yet are so scared of the possibility that they throw up walls of denial and react with hostility and childish name-calling.
I know who I feel safer with.
Service User
Tuesday, 28 April 2009
Hello Again!
HUGE Apologies for the lack of new content recently, but as usual, workload has been heavy elsewhere and I haven't had the time to catch up with the Inner Mind Blog.
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Hopefully, things can start getting back to normal soon, along with the long-awaited move of Rosemount Recovery Plus to The Willows site behind Macclesfield Learning Zone (Macc College in other words!).
Rosemount will close for good as a day centre at day's end, Friday 1st May 2009. The service will reopen at The Willows under a new name, FUTURE PATHWAYS, on Monday, 11th May 2009.
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Hopefully, the new service will continue Rosemount’s tradition of helping some of the 1 in 4 of the population known to have suffered from mental health problems along the road to recovery and take a stand in challenging the stigma and ignorance about mental health.
I'll be back soon!
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Hopefully, things can start getting back to normal soon, along with the long-awaited move of Rosemount Recovery Plus to The Willows site behind Macclesfield Learning Zone (Macc College in other words!).
Rosemount will close for good as a day centre at day's end, Friday 1st May 2009. The service will reopen at The Willows under a new name, FUTURE PATHWAYS, on Monday, 11th May 2009.
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Hopefully, the new service will continue Rosemount’s tradition of helping some of the 1 in 4 of the population known to have suffered from mental health problems along the road to recovery and take a stand in challenging the stigma and ignorance about mental health.I'll be back soon!
Tuesday, 13 January 2009
Tuesday, 23 December 2008
Christmas Poetry
Quick Christmas Acrostic
(Written in-class on the Macclesfield College Creative Writing Course, 27th November 2008)
Crinkling log fire, glowing sparks;
Hearth warm, golden, inviting;
Robin sings on folded cards
In snowy scenes gladly left outdoors;
Steaming kitchen, sweet aromas diffusing:
Tasty treat simmering upon the stove implores;
Merrymaking still with Morecambe & Wise;
A time for sharing; or remembering,
Savouring the memories of the morning’s surprise.
Happy Christmas (and Happy Hanukkah) to all our readers!!!
(Written in-class on the Macclesfield College Creative Writing Course, 27th November 2008)
Crinkling log fire, glowing sparks;
Hearth warm, golden, inviting;
Robin sings on folded cards
In snowy scenes gladly left outdoors;
Steaming kitchen, sweet aromas diffusing:
Tasty treat simmering upon the stove implores;
Merrymaking still with Morecambe & Wise;
A time for sharing; or remembering,
Savouring the memories of the morning’s surprise.
Happy Christmas (and Happy Hanukkah) to all our readers!!!
Friday, 5 December 2008
Inner Mind Public Meeting
The Inner Mind Newsletter team invites you
the readers to our first Public meeting.
So come along and meet us to share your ideas. Inner Mind needs people like you with interests in Mental Health either personally …
Maybe you are a service user or carer and want to contribute articles for the next issue. You don’t have to be good at creative writing or be a journalist; it’s the taking part that counts. Are you a keen photographer or want to become part of our Editorial team? Then now’s the ideal chance to get involved.
...Or professionally; for instance, you may be involved in an organisation which provides services in Mental Health, and would like Inner Mind to publish information about your organisation or to promote events.
We are also looking for sponsors. As you may be aware, Inner Mind is part of the Community Newsletter Group, a non-profit making organisation, and we rely heavily on funding. Both Allen Lane and the Pennycress Trust agreed to fund us which we found to be a ‘life saver’. Do you think your organisation could help?
The meeting takes place on 8th December at 7pm - 9pm in the Dearnaley Room, 1st Floor, at the
Macclesfield & District Disability Information Bureau,
Pierce Street (off Great King Street),
Macclesfield,
SK11 6ER.
Refreshments will be provided.
Service users and professionals are very welcome.
the readers to our first Public meeting.
So come along and meet us to share your ideas. Inner Mind needs people like you with interests in Mental Health either personally …
Maybe you are a service user or carer and want to contribute articles for the next issue. You don’t have to be good at creative writing or be a journalist; it’s the taking part that counts. Are you a keen photographer or want to become part of our Editorial team? Then now’s the ideal chance to get involved.
...Or professionally; for instance, you may be involved in an organisation which provides services in Mental Health, and would like Inner Mind to publish information about your organisation or to promote events.
We are also looking for sponsors. As you may be aware, Inner Mind is part of the Community Newsletter Group, a non-profit making organisation, and we rely heavily on funding. Both Allen Lane and the Pennycress Trust agreed to fund us which we found to be a ‘life saver’. Do you think your organisation could help?
The meeting takes place on 8th December at 7pm - 9pm in the Dearnaley Room, 1st Floor, at the
Macclesfield & District Disability Information Bureau,
Pierce Street (off Great King Street),
Macclesfield,
SK11 6ER.
Refreshments will be provided.
Service users and professionals are very welcome.
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