Invitation to express your views to Herts County Council, Adult Care Services, Joint Commissioners about the services you are receiving and what you think of the ones provided by The Recovery In-Sight Centre.

Wednesday 27th October. 1.30pm - 3.30pm. The Quakers, Cuttys Lane, Stevenage.

If you have attended one of the two self-help groups for people affected by bipolar disorder, or if you have attended an In-Sight training course, or if you have benefitted from the voluntary opportunities that The Recovery In-Sight Centre has offered you, or if you have gone on to higher education or found a job - you are welcome to make the most of this only chance you will have to voice your views about how you have benefited from our services, before the review of public sector spending will have its effect in April 2011 when the services we provide for you risk being cut.

That means that your services risk being cut.

This meeting is to evaluate the benefit that past users of our services have experienced and it is vital you attend to express your views. It is also vital that you attend to express your views on what other services you feel you need, but are not receiving.

We asked you to voice your views and write in support of our services that risked discontinuing from April this year, and it is vital for you to attend, so that we do not again have to write to Joint Commissioners, to again voice our views that the services we provide that are helpful in a person’s recovery, whether they be for users or for carers, should not cease.

You may be aware that the Day Opportunities Review in Herts undertaken by Joint Commissioners this year - a study which brings together what service users said they wanted more of from services - has highlighted that what The Recovery In-Sight Social Enterprise is doing, is basically ticking all of those boxes and therefore delivering the services that users have said they needed:

· (1) training to help with symptom management (49% of users said they wanted this). This is provided through the In-Sight recovery training that is effective in enabling recovery compared to people who received their usual care. This has been the subject of a PhD research study and on-going research by the Centre’s Senior User Researchers, Dr Straughan and Dr Wallcraft which shows that people are more able to manage their illness after following the In-Sight training.

· (2) lifeskills training (26% of users said they want this). This is provided through the In-Sight recovery training. This lifeskills training (communication, assertiveness, anger management, dealing with negative thoughts, positive-thinking, relaxation), impacts upon taking up “meaningful activities” (eg. other community activities such as gym/weight loss groups, which 40% said they wanted to access, and this also impacts upon enabling people to access mainstream community activities which 24% of users said they wanted to do). The lifeskills training enables this as people are more confident and are more able to work towards achieving their chosen goals, whatever these may be.

· (3) self-help support groups (36% of users want access to these; the Centre provides 2 support groups in Herts: one in Watford, one in Stevenage)

· (4) 34% of users want access to training & educational opportunities; the In-Sight course gives them this as a University accredited course, 20 points at Degree Level (level 3), at no cost to trainees who follow the course. This then enables people to build towards a higher educational qualification if they wish to return to University, or enroll in a University course for the first time. The course is accredited with Middlesex University, with their Work-Based Learning Dept.

· (5) 35% of users want access to voluntary opportunities or paid work; the Centre offers voluntary opportunities in the offices which for all current staff have led to paid work, as they all started as volunteers initially. It also offers opportunities to train as a trainer in delivering the In-Sight training and supports trainers in the Pttls course (preparing to teach, City & Guilds course: Level 3, 6 points). The voluntary opportunities enable people to brush up or learn new office skills, whilst also being supervised by trained In-Sight recovery trainers who support them in building up their recovery skills at the same time. These practical opportunities help people to build up their confidence in a user-led working office and to develop their job goal plan, before returning to paid work elsewhere.

· (6) 56% of users want more opportunities to run their own services and support one another. The Recovery In-Sight Centre is a user-run service, established without the intervention of services, and having created a new social enterprise, The Recovery In-Sight Social Enterprise (RISE), is employing staff who are academically trained and with lived experience of mental health issues. The office environment is self-supportive. The management team have been or are affected personally by mental health issues.

We look forward to seeing you at this important meeting and thank you in advance of your support of the services we are providing - for users by users.

View The team's Author profile      Subscribe via RSS