I’ve just finished 9 months working on the mental health peer support community Elefriends. The role was a maternity cover post and focused on community engagement as well as moderation training and support. So what did I get up to? Six co-design workshops with community members I organised and co-facilitated six co-design workshops with community…
Category: Current & Recent Projects
New youth resources for the Miscarriage Association
“People said it was lucky really. I don’t know how to deal with that” This quote was one of many we gathered from young women we spoke to during the youth project consultation process I ran for the Miscarriage Association. It highlighted the need for additional support resources that reflected the experiences of younger people….
Developing youth resources with the Miscarriage Association and Brook
Stage 1 – Online and face to face workshops with young people “I’ve honestly literally never spoken about my experience with anyone since I left sixth form, this is the first (and possibly last) time – but I’m happy that I’m using it to hopefully help others” I was recently approached by the Miscarriage Association to…
How do you run a good training session in an online chat room? 17 tips and ideas.
Last night I ran an online training session for YouthNet’s chat moderator volunteers (I’ve written a post about what is is like to moderate real time support chat for young people here). We all joined a chat room in YouthNet’s online volunteer community for an evening session. The focus of this chat was talking therapies…
Guardian Voluntary Sector Network Xmas Volunteering
Representing online volunteering in the Guardian Just before Christmas I wrote a piece for the Guardian on why I volunteer at Christmas. It was a personal explanation of my motivation to volunteer, why I’ve continued to do so since leaving YouthNet and why it’s particularly important at Christmas. It was one of a series on Christmas…
Moderating real time support chat with TheSite community
What does moderating real time support chat online for 10 – 25 young community members involve? Support chat Every other Sunday I moderate support chat on TheSite.org. TheSite runs a number of types of chat – I’ve also been an expert for their recent Mindfulness chat. I used to do moderation as part of my role…
Online peer support training with Action on Postpartum Psychosis
Running a training day for volunteers working on a new online peer support service for APP I was really pleased to be asked to help out with APP’s new online peer support programme. APP has been funded to provide peer support to women with postpartum psychosis and their partners. They have been running an online…
Organisational Healthcheck Consultancy for Time to Change
Attending the Time to Change Organisational Healthcheck training and away day I recently attended a training and meet up day for Time To Change Organisational Healthcheck Consultants. As I mentioned when posting about the work I did on an anti stigma campaign for Richmond Borough Mind, there is still a lot of discrimination, misunderstanding and silence…
What exactly IS Mindfulness? Chatting with young people on TheSite.org
Earlier this month I found myself back at YouthNet Towers, this time as an expert for one of their expert chats. The Engagement and Support team at YouthNet oversee the running of a number of types of online chat. These include support chat (I also moderate support chats as a volunteer), general chat, film and…
Articles for ONEinFOUR
I’ve written four articles for lifestyle, health and mental wellbeing magazine ONEinFOUR. Spring-Summer 2013 – managing depression and anxiety in relationships The first was published in the Spring-Summer 2013 issue. It was one of the cover stories and explored managing anxiety and depression in relationships. Autumn-Winter 2013 More recently I’ve written three pieces for the…
Mental health information articles for 16-25 year olds
Information on recent mental health support writing for young people I recently completed two articles for TheSite’s new Anxiety and Depression section. Trouble getting help for mental health and Online Counselling. Writing for young people The aim of The Site.org content is to provide clear, straight talking and supportive information for young people. Articles respond to…
Mental Health Awareness Campaign Support
This summer I provided interim support for the CEO of Richmond Borough Mind in the initial stages of organising a campaign for World Mental Health day in October 2013. Reducing stigma around mental health The campaign was focused on reducing stigma around mental health with an emphasis on encouraging employers to consider mental health and…
Online consultation with Mind’s Elefriends community
I first came across the Elefriends community after attending their online peer support training. I was interested in online peer support for adults and wanted to find out more about the impact of providing community members with peer support training. How does this affect their experience? I wrote about this training here. Online community consultation…