My Mental Wellness Blog

This week again as been exciting. Meeting councillor Bobby Dean led me to talk to 2 Mental Health companies, asking if they would endorse this website. With endorsement, it makes this venture more official, making it a viable service to offer to other services to get the message out there.

While writing the emails, I came up with an idea, a QR sticker, which could be placed in the first aid cabinet or on the Fridge, which, when scanned / photoed, would open the website, showing local services. Placing in the cabinet or on the fridge means, it is available at the times you may need it most. What are your thoughts? let me know. Sorry its a short update, and with that, have a good weekend. If you dont, I trust you know where you can find the support you need.

Listening to people, I have added a new listing to the website, there is now carer.mymentalwellness.uk where I have started to list services aimed at carers. Too often, carers are overlooked, having to ensure the wellbeing of the person they are caring for, in its self can be stressful.

There are many services which are available, but its another, if you dont know the right person, then you dont know what is available. This is getting better with the Mental Health Champion scheme in county councils, and social perscribers, but again, if you dont know about them, you dont know.

I'm tring to decide, should I make these just more offical updates, or should I still waffle on and tell you about them, I'm leaning towards the waffle version.

So, on the website, your notice a + symbol next to the section title, this allows you to add Help, Crisis Cafe and Drop in services yourself.

The Recovery Colleges are all in the system, and just need allocating to the correct area.

This is where I need your help. To be able to add all the services I have listed, to the correct areas, I need someone from that area to visit the site, to add the area. I could add an area manually, as I have acess to over 4 million area names. The issue here is, I depend on the area returned by your IP address when you connect to the internet. If the area listed manually is different to what is provided automatically, then it wont match up and display the local services.

Please share this website to everybody you know, and lets get the word out there that there are free services available.

Again, a busy week. New people to chase, new sites to add. Would you believe Im getting hits from all over the world, im just so sorry I cant cater for everywhere, as the Mental health conditions experianced here, are, and will be the same as across the world, just I dont have the access, or time to add everywhere just yet. I received an email back from South West London And St Georges Mental Health Trust, Vanessa Ford. Her email was very encurraging and she has put me in contact with the Director of Communications and Engagement. That is going to be some exciting meeting.

To think, the mission for this site, was to list all Recovery Colleges around the UK, along with their courses. Today, it lists all the Recovery Colleges around the UK, Plus, the National Mental Health services, and local Crisis Cafe's, Local Mental Health Drop-in and wellness Hubs. What does the future hold. Well, I have an investor ready to jump onboard as soon as I'm ready. I want the site to list services for carers and expand on the Crisis Cafe's and Drop-ins.

From what it was in the begining of January, to a functional, click to call service, it is today, im amazed how quickly it has progressed. It is all thanks to you, the people who are looking at this page, reading this text, thinking what is going to happen next. Do you click on the Samaritans button and have a conversation with them? That is what they are there for, if you are feeling lonely, feeling slightly low, or just want a chat to someone, to voice out an idea. Many moons ago, I use to talk to a friend, she ran her own computer company. She use to voice her problems to me and by the time she had finished, she had already come up with the solution. I did the same, when I went to councilling, by the time i had explained what was going on, I already had the solution in mind. They could never understand why I went...

Isnt it funny how you start talking about one thing, and end up talking about something completely unrelated. So, im going to leave it there for this update, and wish you a good week ahead. Just keep watching, you never know where this is going

Today has been exciting. To the extent, after discussions with the recovery college at Springfield hospital, the comms team have published a link to this site on the SouthWest London and St Georges Mental Health Trust intranet site. This means, all the employees of the Trust have now been given a link to this site. The posibilities are that they will now use the site to find services, and signpost clients to the site.

Speaking to the Mental Health Practitioner at the Sutton Mental Health Foundation, within moments of seeing the site, she could see the benifits and indicated that she will push for this to go national with her managers and bosses.

The potential is mind blowing. Really exciting times. Now I have to develop a method to allow people to add venues to this site.

So, here I am, 11:16pm, looking at the scripts, creating a method to add venues. I have already had someone approach me, with a posibility of being an invester, and another person down in Poole offering to perform data entry for me.

It is hard to believe, this is all posible due to you, the people who have donated to the idea of this site. It is ... overwhelming ...

I thank you.

After a panic last night when the GeoIP service i used went to a holding page stating the domain was up for sale, I found a new GeoIP location service. This has enabled local services to be defined and displayed when you go to this site.

The excitement now is, the site now shows national help for when you are in crisis, and will display services which are local to you.

if you are on a Mobile phone, its posible the IP will indicate you are in a different ares so there is a pull down to be able to select your area.

Please be aware that only areas which I have linked to services will have Drop-in centers, crisis cafes and recovery colleges.

This is where I ask for your help. If you are aware of any drop in centers, wellness hubs, crisis cafes, please let me know so I can add it to the system and be able to signpost people to these services.

Christmas day. For some people its the best day ever, watching their children enjoying their gifts, watching TV after over eating.

but to so many, its the worst day, lonelyness, nowhere is open, their usual go to places are shut, families are too busy to see you.

I had hoped that I would have had a number of locations which are open for people to attend, so they dont feel so alone. Somewhere they felt included, somewhere they could talk to somone who wanted to listen, but life got in the way and I havent been able to update the site as much as I want. So, I'm going to make some changes to anybody can add Mental Health Drop-in's and Crisis Cafe's.

It is so easy to look outside and see people moving about, and assume they are too busy to talk, to take time to connect. The currage to take that first step and make contact, make that connection we all need is, is very hard. We have many reasons not to take that step, that jump. Where as we only need one reason to do it. And that is, for us.

They may be too busy, they may not have the time, and you will never know, unless you take that step, assume that they dont have time for you. Someone told me a long time ago, Assume does only one thing. It makes an ASS out of U and ME -- ASS U ME

Where ever you are, I trust you had an ok day.

Thank you for all the feedback I have received. The best feedback was confirmation on the format and layout. especially the search engine for the recovery colleges, where its not cluttered with images or adverts etc. The person indicated they were dyslexic (dyslexia) so this format was easy for them to read. Any further feedback like this, or any feedback would be welcome.

I have no intention to put adverts on this site, as that will hide the reason for this site. I may put a link back to the hosting service but that will be it for the foreseeable future.

I've been really busy the last week or two, but I think its time to start adding Mental Health drop in centers, and Crisis Cafe's.

The mental health dropin centers may offer events such as trips out or events such as yoga, indoor tennis etc.

The Crisis Cafe may not actually serve food, the concept is its a safe place you can go to if you need support either 1-2-1 or just to be around other people, as sometimes a crisis can be due to being alone.

Please let me know if you have a place you go to, specificly to manage your mental health, where you dont have to have a clinical diagnosis to attend.

I have completed the list of courses which are adviertised in the latest list of courses.
Will need to revisit once the new timetable goes live.

There are currently 15 courses being provided