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…
Category: Work & Projects
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…
Social media, mental health and mindfulness
Exploring the potential damage that social media can cause; promoting unrealistic representations of daily life and encouraging us all to make unhealthy comparisons with our internal experience. It was only a few years ago that the idea that Facebook and other social networking sites could diminish happiness or affect wellbeing was still a relatively new…
What do we need to get help from our GP for mental health? Reassurance, realistic expectations and a plan.
Helping you get help from your GP “NHS services think that they are a series of entrances – but actually they are a series of barriers“ Yesterday, I went down to Brighton for the launch of Doc Ready – a new digital tool (a website and soon to be app) that helps young people get…
Pills and Pregnancy – when careless journalism damages vulnerable people
Pills panic Sitting down at my desk this morning, I opened Twitter for my usual pre work browse. My eye was caught by this tweet, which linked to an article by the BBC ‘Antidepressants ‘could be risk to unborn babies”. Of course, I clicked straight through. My recurrent depression and uneven support and information from…
Happify yourself?
Want to be happier every day? Well who doesn’t? Personally I am interested in exploring ways of helping me manage my wellbeing as I try to cut down on the anti depressants I have been on for the last 12 years (a process that seems to have stalled around the 20mg mark). I’ve also recently…
Happiness – an emotion, a mood, a goal or a way of life?
What would we describe as a ‘happy life’? “The idea that humans can capture a mere mood – ‘happiness’ – and somehow preserve it seems absurd. As an aim for life it is not only doomed but infantile.” Sebastian Faulks – A Possible Life The idea of ‘happiness’ seems to have been popping up everywhere…
Managing depression and anxiety in relationships; early days and long term.
Tips and suggestions for managing depression and anxiety within relationships. A version of this article was published in the Summer 2013 edition of ONEinFOUR magazine. Managing mental health when meeting someone new; the early days of uncertainty and strong emotions. Four years ago I was pretty happy. I felt I was finally managing to keep all life’s…