In my last walk post, I was talking about mental health, one of the big reasons I walk every day, so I thought it would be good to follow up with a post about the work West End Impact do to help with mental health. In many ways, everything they do could be seen as helping with people’s mental health because all the stresses and strains of everyday living never mind those added ones associated with homelessness, poverty, disability, joblessness, etc have an impact on mental health – however, I want to focus on those activities specifically designed to help mental health.
The focus of Impact’s mental health work is ‘Wellbeing Wednesdays’. On a Wednesday several things are happening and people can join one or more of them.
The first is Living Life to the Full.(LLTTF) This is a 10-week CBT course, for people with depression, stress, anxiety, or low mood. Impact’s practitioners who run it are trained and also all have their own lived experience of these conditions. The course was written by Chris Williams who is Emeritus Professor of Psychosocial Psychiatry at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK, and a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. It is an NHS recommended course and the local GP practice, the job centre and other places often refer people to Impact for this course. Normally two courses are run concurrently, with staggered start dates in order to try and ensure no one has to wait too long to start.
In addition to LLTTF, Wednesday also sees a periodic therapeutic drumming session (Or as I often call it, hitting things for stress relief) which despite the sound, can be quite calming. This is done in association with ‘More Music’, a music and education charity who have been working in the West End of Morecambe since 1993. Another Wednesday activity is also the Innovate art therapy group run by one of the mental health practitioners and an art therapist.
During the first covid lockdown, the staff who normally lead the LLTTF courses decided that it would be valuable to keep in touch, not only with those who were/had attended the courses, but also with a lot of other people they knew who struggled with various mental health issues and they set up a Facebook group to check in with, encourage, and support people. This group has continued and been useful for many people, a place where they can acknowledge a bad day, or share a helpful meme.
LLTTF also has a young people’s version, which Impact has run, both in local schools and independently. This helps a lot of young people who don’t meet the criteria for an overburdened CAMHS.
There is more that is done, but other things tend to be on a more personal basis. For instance, helping someone with poor self-esteem to create an item and sell it through the ReStore can be a massive boost. As can the simple act of listening without trying to ‘fix’ someone. Impact does all this, and more.
As usual, if you would like to support this work, please click the how to donate button above and follow the link to Crowdfunder. Thank you.