Tuesday, 7 August 2012
Music Production & Animation courses FREE!
Now operating throughout the UK, JVT (John Vanek Trainings) is excited to announce a new commission for mental health music and arts training.
The London borough of Merton has commissioned a joint venture between JVT and visual arts charity ACAVA (Association for Cultural Advancement through Visual Arts). The initiative comprises animation and music production workshops.
The music production workshops are scheduled to take place at Crown Lane studios in the heart of Morden town centre. The first session is August 23rd at 9.45 a.m.
Animation workshops will take place at ACAVA's arts space studios in Lombard Road Merton.
The initiative is part of borough plans to promote long-term health and development in accordance with the cultural Olympiad.
If you have a mental health condition and live in the London Borough of Merton, you are eligible for this free course programme.
For more information please e-mail john@johnvanektrainings.com
Music production and Animation courses FREE!
Now operating throughout the UK, JVT (John Vanek Trainings) is excited to announce a new commission for mental health music and arts training.
The London borough of Merton has commissioned a joint venture between JVT and visual arts charity ACAVA (Association for Cultural Advancement through Visual Arts). The initiative comprises animation and music production workshops.
The music production workshops are scheduled to take place at Crown Lane studios in the heart of Morden town centre. The first session is August 23rd at 9.45 a.m.
Animation workshops will take place at ACAVA's arts space studios in Lombard Road Merton.
The initiative is part of borough plans to promote long-term health and development in accordance with the cultural Olympiad.
If you have a mental health condition and live in the London Borough of Merton, you are eligible for this free course programme.
For more information please e-mail john@johnvanektrainings.com
Monday, 23 July 2012
Sunday, 4 March 2012
Peer support in mental health
A good deal of discussion is taking place around the idea of peer support workers in mental health practice. A recent Guardian article entitled 'Putting the lunatics in charge of the asylum' has highlighted the debate.
It's not just the 'asylum', hospital, day centre or residential setting where peer support working can take place. Nor does a peer support or recovery worker have to be an official post, paid or voluntary within the NHS or any clinical setting.
Peer support in mental health is taking place informally all over the place. Many peer supporters would not even give themselves such a title. In many cases they are simply spending time with the friends they already know or with the peers who have accessed a setting or venue which attracts them too.
As a bridge builder who has signposted people with severe and enduring mental health diagnoses to mainstream settings of their own choice, I have witnessed this peer support happen over and again.
Four years ago I signposted a client to a mainstream recording studio. With the help of direct payments he has been accessing this venue weekly ever since, practising guitar and collaborating with others in the studio. He has also secured part-time employment as a studio assistant, getting the rehearsal rooms ready for bands and bookings.
What has happened as a result of this client's involvement is an informal cascading of peer support and group participation. Again, this has occurred with very little prompting from the bridge builder. As my client relishes working with other musicians, he is happy to have peers who also wish to participate i.e. start a band during his weekly studio sessions. This has resulted in a drummer peer and a singer peer rehearsing regularly together with Bernie (not his real name). Another peer also attends regularly - a long-term friend of Bernie who is learning guitar from him and who has previously been impossible to place by the bridge building team in any mainstream setting.
This is informal and highly effective peer support. Above all, it is taking place in mainstream not in any clinical, residential or daycare setting. Recovery that takes place in mainstream allows for hope, confidence, friendship, group projects and routes to employment.
It's not just the 'asylum', hospital, day centre or residential setting where peer support working can take place. Nor does a peer support or recovery worker have to be an official post, paid or voluntary within the NHS or any clinical setting.
Peer support in mental health is taking place informally all over the place. Many peer supporters would not even give themselves such a title. In many cases they are simply spending time with the friends they already know or with the peers who have accessed a setting or venue which attracts them too.
As a bridge builder who has signposted people with severe and enduring mental health diagnoses to mainstream settings of their own choice, I have witnessed this peer support happen over and again.
Four years ago I signposted a client to a mainstream recording studio. With the help of direct payments he has been accessing this venue weekly ever since, practising guitar and collaborating with others in the studio. He has also secured part-time employment as a studio assistant, getting the rehearsal rooms ready for bands and bookings.
What has happened as a result of this client's involvement is an informal cascading of peer support and group participation. Again, this has occurred with very little prompting from the bridge builder. As my client relishes working with other musicians, he is happy to have peers who also wish to participate i.e. start a band during his weekly studio sessions. This has resulted in a drummer peer and a singer peer rehearsing regularly together with Bernie (not his real name). Another peer also attends regularly - a long-term friend of Bernie who is learning guitar from him and who has previously been impossible to place by the bridge building team in any mainstream setting.
This is informal and highly effective peer support. Above all, it is taking place in mainstream not in any clinical, residential or daycare setting. Recovery that takes place in mainstream allows for hope, confidence, friendship, group projects and routes to employment.
Wednesday, 13 July 2011
The viral effect of mainstream
Things can happen when a client with a mental health condition is allowed the opportunity to access mainstream on his or her own terms. Mainstream can be highly supportive of clients' individual aspirations and self-development. Sometimes this encouragement comes directly from the mainstream outlet itself rather than being dictated by carers, statutory services or voluntary agencies.
There are sound reasons for this. Mainstream allows individuals to access services as consumers with consumer rights. If someone with a mental health diagnosis freely chooses to develop his or her aspirations in a mainstream environment, there is no good reason why that person should be denied any of the services that particular venue may provide. The client is accessing mainstream as a consumer of that service, not as a 'diagnosis'.
Once a firm relationship with mainstream has been established, there are multiple ways that mainstream finds to continue to develop individual hopes, dreams and aspirations. I have clients who have found employment through accessing music by rehearsing regularly in a mainstream recording studio. This has not happened because I have requested the venue to provide employment for my clients. Far from it, the venue itself has instigated the process that can lead an individual towards a working role in the environment where he or she happens to feel most fulfilled.
This is the viral effect of mainstream
There are sound reasons for this. Mainstream allows individuals to access services as consumers with consumer rights. If someone with a mental health diagnosis freely chooses to develop his or her aspirations in a mainstream environment, there is no good reason why that person should be denied any of the services that particular venue may provide. The client is accessing mainstream as a consumer of that service, not as a 'diagnosis'.
Once a firm relationship with mainstream has been established, there are multiple ways that mainstream finds to continue to develop individual hopes, dreams and aspirations. I have clients who have found employment through accessing music by rehearsing regularly in a mainstream recording studio. This has not happened because I have requested the venue to provide employment for my clients. Far from it, the venue itself has instigated the process that can lead an individual towards a working role in the environment where he or she happens to feel most fulfilled.
This is the viral effect of mainstream
Friday, 10 June 2011
The bridge builder's role
Bridge building is a strategy developed in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Designed to promote social inclusion for groups that might otherwise be marginalised, bridge building has been used to immense effect in the mental health field. Bridge building is particularly useful for people who suffer or who are in recovery from severe and enduring mental health conditions.
The role of the bridge builder is very simple. It is to help facilitate access to mainstream environments for individuals, based entirely on their own personal choices. The original social inclusion think-tanks were set up by the (then) office of the deputy prime minister. Nine key social domains were identified as key to individual development. However, it is not expected that every individual would be expected to access every single domain, nor would they wish to. The key areas include employment, arts & culture, faith and cultural communities, education & training, volunteering, befriending, sports and wellbeing. There are other domains as well, such as friends and family and statutory services.
Within these contexts, a bridge building team can be set up, working in mainstream with referrals from other agencies particularly NHS and social services. It is crucial that the organisation that is commissioned to carry out mainstream is itself embedded in a mainstream environment or conducts its interactions with clients in the big wide world, rather than in a clinical setting. It is the only way that a conversation with a client about their hopes and aspirations can be realistic and genuine. These approaches are entirely in line with the way mainstream was envisaged as a key part of the care pathway and an alternative to what Dr. Pat Deegan has aptly described as 'a career in mental health'.
The role of the bridge builder is very simple. It is to help facilitate access to mainstream environments for individuals, based entirely on their own personal choices. The original social inclusion think-tanks were set up by the (then) office of the deputy prime minister. Nine key social domains were identified as key to individual development. However, it is not expected that every individual would be expected to access every single domain, nor would they wish to. The key areas include employment, arts & culture, faith and cultural communities, education & training, volunteering, befriending, sports and wellbeing. There are other domains as well, such as friends and family and statutory services.
Within these contexts, a bridge building team can be set up, working in mainstream with referrals from other agencies particularly NHS and social services. It is crucial that the organisation that is commissioned to carry out mainstream is itself embedded in a mainstream environment or conducts its interactions with clients in the big wide world, rather than in a clinical setting. It is the only way that a conversation with a client about their hopes and aspirations can be realistic and genuine. These approaches are entirely in line with the way mainstream was envisaged as a key part of the care pathway and an alternative to what Dr. Pat Deegan has aptly described as 'a career in mental health'.
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