My Mental Wellness Blog

Hello everyone. So, firstly, i want to say sorry for the delay in updates. I had to step away from the website for a little bit. Once again, someone has posted online, that the earth will be taken over in 2028, and somebody who has ocd, paranoia, psychosis, believed this event will actually happen, so sleep has been eratic, eating has been eratic, and I have just spent time, tring to convince them that this event wont happen, like it didnt happen last year, or the time before, or before or ....

I had a fantastic meeting with Alex, he is trying to restore a community to how it use to be prior to covid, and he has developed a booklet with all the events held locally, so I have started to import these events in to the calendar. I think the whole website needs a revamp, to allow for further defining when events are going to be. question is, do i only display events, services, etc, when they are open or display them all with information on when they are open? going to have to think about that..

I have also been asked to co-host a support group, which I have been attending every wednesday, so that is fantastic news. that along with chaterbox which i attend every thursday....

right, need to email my future accountant and start registering the business so, im going to leave it here for today and hopefully normal services will resume from today. have a great day, but if you find you are struggling, then please use the website to find the support you need at the time you need it.

Hello and welcome to another weekly, although a bit longer than weekly roundup. Yesterday I attended the SouthWest London and St Georges Mental health Trust AGM. Although I didnt attend it, I am now a co-host for the Peer Recognition support group, so I attended the coffee and chat part of the AGM and just after the meeting started, I had to leave. But..... me being me, i went around, handing out my flyer to anybody who would take it. I met a couple of the directors and, overheard a couple of ladies talking about their experiances, so, again I gave them my leaflets. And that turned in to a long conversation about "We were only talking about the lack of information sharing". It transpires they are councillors and their task is to try and get the communities involved and aware. They were so excited to hear about the website, it again reminded my why i do this, what its all for. This lead on to a couple of name dropping and further LinkedIn contacts. It was the ecitement they displayed when they checked out their area to find I had local services defined for that area which in turn really got me excited all over again.

I also met the guys who run the volunteer center, and have already had a few emails with details of pilot schemes and names of people to contact...

And.... I met someone who is trying to create a connection for a community within sutton. By this I mean, he is meeting people, and discussin what they want, what they would like to get involved in, within a community in Sutton. He has produced a really good calendar booklet, which describes each day, what is available, where its located with a brief summary. he also use to run a website simular to what im doing but just focusing on Sutton, so we are going to see if there is any cross over and build on that.

I intend to reproduce anything which is working in this area to other areas around the UK, so if anybody is interested to help, then let me know and we can have a chat, see what you can do to help me, and ill see what I can do to help you and your community.

I need a team of people !! help ! :)

Hello and welcome to this weeks round up.

So, to start off, Dialogue Plus, this is the new method to assess and create a care plan for patients. I attended a workshop this week, to listen to feedback from people who took part in the pilot, to see what they thought worked well and where it could be improved. It was interesting. In the end, I ... well, I gave out around 100 flyers for My Mental Wellness UK, as each and everybody who attended saw the purpose of the site and wanted to pass on information to their patients. Some of the participants already knew about the site, and asked for more flyers... It was an amazing 4 hours, just listening to them talking about the system.

Support groups

Then Chatterbox on Thursday. This is the 3rd meeting I attended, and heard some amazing feedback from a previous attendee. Next week it looks like we have around 10 people attending, so its starting to take off. You can find details if you change the location to Sutton and check out Support Groups. Chatterbox covers South West London's 5 borough.

Plans for next week

Next week, im attending a Suicide Prevention conference, Sutton Mental Health foundaton for a number of events, and it looks like I have 5 meetings / steering groups / forums to attend. Going to be a busy week.

Website News.

The Location service is working really well, im really pleased with it. Let me know what you think. I have verified a further 30 carers resources, Check out your area, see if its been listed yet, if not, its comming.... And finally, I have re-writen the verificaiton email system. So if you are a service user, please look out for your email to verify the information just by clicking a link in the email.

Final word

Have a great week, but if you find you are struggling, please make use of the website and I trust you will find the support you need.

Hello and welcome to Saturday.

Location Services

Thanks to Gemini, Googles AI service, I have been able to create a new method to locate the area you are in. This means its more accurate and does not depend on how you connect to the internet. Again, I only extract the district / area you are located, I dont record any other information about your location but more to the point, I dont know who uses the website. I know how many times the page is accessed but by whom, i have no idea.

So. location. When you visit the website, it uses the inbult function of your device browser to provide your rough location, if you dont want to use that, then you have the option to give your post code. Again, the only information I get from that is the area you are in. If you dont want to use your post code, then just press the submit button and pick an area where you are located from the list.

Carers resources

Im still adding further resources for carers. it takes around 5 minutes to verify each as I check different information and ensure its all current. Its happening, just slowly.

Support Groups

Last week we attended chatterbox, a support group held every thursday between 1 and 3pm in Tooting. This week it was suggested that we look in to an arts and crafts project as part of the business, so if you are locall, this may be comming your way soon. We will be looking at funding for this venture to try and keep it a free event for you to attend. I have also been asked if I would like to co-host a carers recognition group I attend every wednesday, so thats exciting. well, thats it for this week so far.

Have a great rest of the week, but if you find you are suffering, please make use of the website and see if there is a service resource or venue you can use to help you through the day.

Hello, and here is this weeks roundup. firstly, shortly after Swindon's carers center announced that they were closing, they posted that they had come to an agreement and will be open until at least 1st Jan 2026. fantastic news. But that sent me on a research quest. The research I performed found 461 carers resources which I have imported in to the website. Im slowly going through these one by one to ensure they are still valid, that there is the correct contact details, website, facebook page etc. Its going to take time, the result being, day by day, there are further carers resources which are being signposted to from this website.

This week saw another event hosted by Spear London, in Kingston, where I had a long conversation with the Mayor of Kingston and providing her with a handful of leaflets for her office. Having interacted with a number of service providers who were keen on using the website, and service providers who again indicated they were keen on using the website to find services they were not aware of.

Website update: The location service I use to get the district / town / area you are located is proving to give false information. I am in the middle of updating the method of locating your area to be able to provide the support you need. This means you either click on allow to enable the browser to send location details which will result in finding the district / area your in, or using your postcode, which will again just return your area. I dont save any information about users of this website, and the information provided is publicly available.

Next week: Not a lot happening next week, Chatterbox is back on Thursday, which I have indicated that I would be interested in co-hosting this event, so when the person running it is away, i can step in and ensure its running. The normal Sutton Mental Health Foundation visit on friday, Carers Recognition Group meeting on Wednesday, its the following week where i have several meetings which is good, means I get to share information between groups at a high level.

Have a good week, but if you find your suffering, please make use of the website to find the support you need at www.mymentalwellness.uk

This week, Swindon Carers Center announced that they were unable to get funding so they were going to close end of the year. Just under 30 years of service, serving just under 6000 carers. That is amazing, but that in it self, is heart breaking. They just annoucned that they have funding to the end of 2025 so, well, thats better than it closeing this year... Then I found out that Age UK have closed their offices in Southampton, Mind have closed their office in Andover. Im guessing this is just the tip of the iceberg. After hearing the speach from His Majesty King Charles III, related to Mental Health, I had faith that things were going to change, and change for the better.

How is closing these offices due to lack of funding making this change for the better ?

Im worried, really worried. Then on the other hand, creating and developing this website has taken on a whole new meaning, new requirement, new need. So watch this space.

Hey, how are you? I have just been asked to be a Community Health Ambassador.. role sounded interesting.

So, whats happing with the website? I have been chasing becoming a CIC - Community Interest Company. This means the insurance will have to change and as part of that, I need to be more compliant with the data I hold. So, if you are a service provider, listed on this website, prepair for an automated, yes, I dont do anything, the website does it all its self, it sends an email to the service provider with a unique coded link. They click on the link and if you can get through the security on the website, you are invited to validate the information. This can be just the title of the service and facebook group, but it looks at website addresses, physical addresses, phone numbers etc.

So, yeah, look out for emails :)

The times I have spoken to a service provider to hear, what garentee do we have that you will be around in 3 months, 6 months time? Your not a registered company...

Becoming a registered company has two effects for me, it indicates that Im serious about the work im doing, sharing information between services and the public, that Im not going away any time soon, and, it is a step further to getting funding for the work im doing. Im not doing this website, communicating between services and public for money, but on the other hand, transport to the meetings, website, phone, internet access, insurance, they all cost money, money I dont really have, so becoming a CIC will bring me a step closer to being able to apply for funding to cover these costs. In the last 7, no, 4 days, I have traveled over 45 miles to events, meetings and conferences, which is around £12 to £15 in fuel alone.

Some people have indicated that im only befriending them, in order to get "donations" for the website. The website is free to use, free to advertise services and events. There are only two reasons a service or event is not listed, 1 is the service or event is not free to use, 2, no one has told me, or added the service or event to the website. As long as it is free for people to attend, even if there is an area restriction, it can be listed on the website as long as it is Mental Health or Wellbeing related.

If you would like to donate, to towards costs of keeping the site running, cards to give out to people at events, I continue attending events and passing out cards, then please get in contact. But your access to the website does not depend on if you donated or not.

Its been something i have wanted to do for a while, create a calendar to list free local events such as fetes, festivals, webinars, courses, conferences, anything which is free and either hosted by or is attended by a Mental Health or Wellbeing service. And now its here. You have the facility to add services based on area, and, if the event is being hosted by a known service, which covers several areas, then you have the option to include all or some of those areas.

Because of how it works, anybody can add an event, for any service provider, but I will have to verify and publish the event before its seen publicly. In the future, i plan to change that so the host of the event, or the service provider attending the event will have to confirm the contact details are correct by validating their contact details. this will also give the option to remove or edit the event details, but the fact its there, ready to run, im so excited about it.

The potential is huge... so, if you are aware of any free events being held locally or even nationally, feel free to add it. If there are important details you need to add but there is nowhere to add those details, let me know and ill see if i can add that in to the add and edit page.

This week has been, for want of a better description, eye opening, and humbling. The thought of the week, after attending the Spear London event, the Emergency Paramedics Mental Health and wellness conference, The Eating disorder Conference, the lack of communication is incredable.

So. We need to talk.

Being apart of the audience, the on looker, knowing that at any time, my mental health may suffer and I will need any one of the services Im singposting to, can be an overwhelming feeling. But, what im seeing is people know these services are availble but are waiting until they are at crisis point before they reach out for help.

We all look around us and see other people in same situations, appearing to be able to cope with simular situations, so why not me, why arent i good enough, why am i finding it difficult to cope? where in reallity, they are looking at you, thinking how strong you are, you can deal with these things and carry on, how do you cope so easily.

So why arent we talking to people? neighbours, friends, families? Is it embarrassment? Are you supposed to be the provider, the strong person in the family? Is what your going through nothing to do with anybody else? You dont want to feel a burden? Think about this for a moment. What one situation are you going through, which is unique, that no one else is going through, that no one else has a story to tell about how they managed this situation, how they got through the day? This week, I have heard nearly every phrase, why we dont talk to people, yet, the time we need support from others is nearly always the time we start to withdraw, stop talking to people, stop going out.

Join a walk and talk group, or a support group. you dont have to talk, you can just listen. I will say, it is likely, your story is simular to somebody elses, and what you have found to help, will help other people. so give it a go. what have you to lose? but, more importantly, you will gain confidence, knowledge, knowing that you are not alone, that there are people out there going through what you are going through, and surviving it.

in one of the conferences, a person asked, In the USA, most people talk to a Therapist, before they are at crisis point, why dont we do that here. Somebody responded, saying that its a misconception made up by the film companies. But, what if, it wasnt. why isnt it reality? my first thought is, cost, but as listed locally in Sutton, there are free counciling / Therapy, so, its down to you. do you want to safeguard your mental health, or hope there is someone there who wont take 'im ok' as a real responce to 'are you ok' at the time, your not.