Recognising Potential, Encouraging Independence, Achieving Self-Worth

Mental Health Awareness

Helping to Remove the Stigma of Mental Ill-Health. Helping to Promote Good Mental Health

Mental Health Information

Seminar for Adults

Work in Schools

Course Outline Leaflet

Currently each year, in an average group of 100 people of all ages:

25 people will experience at least one diagnosable mental health problem,

1 person will die (of any cause)

½ of one person will develop cancer

We can’t beat death, scientists are making great strides against preventing and treating cancer but we all can do something to help improve the lives of people with mental health problems.

What can be done:

It’s easy to underestimate the problem but with estimates of £105.2 billion as the overall annual cost of mental ill-health in the UK, the problem is too great to ignore. One interesting research by BT’s chief medical officer was that they managed to reduce their 500 daily sick leave due to mental health to 300 days with some simple tools and encouraging colleagues and line-managers to say to their staff ”Hey, what’s going on, is there anything I can do to help?” Which, he found was “oddly something that people didn’t do very well”.

What we offer:

Started in September 2007 in response to a request to give training on mental health to another local charity, we have expanded into two areas:

Mental health problems are lonely illnesses– it’s the quickest way I know to lose all the people who aren’t paid to care for you. You need people to be with you, to stick by you, to talk about something other than what’s going on inside your head. If you’ve got someone like that, you’ve got a good chance.”

The approximate total cost of mental health problems in the UK is equivalent to the combined UK Government spending on Education, Police, Prisons, Courts & Fire Services.

Schools (students) - 40 - 60 minutes interactive lessons aimed at making the awareness of mental health issues relevant to today’s teenagers. There are up to three sessions in total which combine to give a gradual increasing understanding of our own perceptions, the use of labelling people and examples of ways to support friends and family who may have mental health issues.

Adults - longer seminars (2.5 - 3 hours) covering similar material to the schools project but in a combined session, these incorporate roll-plays, with teaching elements and include time for reflection of how we individually see mental ill-health.

HELPING TO PROMOTE GOOD MENTAL HEALTH

Understanding Mental Health, not a list of diagnoses.

“Unless someone is training to be a mental health practitioner, a list of diagnoses and treatments for different mental illnesses is largely irrelevant.”

This course is not for professionals

Rather than being providing training for mental health professionals or those working directly with people with mental health problems, we have targeted this course at the majority of people who have their own or know friends with mild emotional problems but don’t always know how to help.

Our approach is to help people expand their knowledge of mental health by looking at how our personalities develop and how best to relate to people.

People with mental ill-health share the same hopes, aspirations and fears as everyone else but tend to express them in ways that limit their ability to cope with living in society.

The second half of the course includes various role-plays which help people explore their own attitudes to scenarios that they may face and looks at basic psychological models to understand what kind of things shape our thinking.

Details of shorter courses adapted to fit into a 40-60 minute lessons for schools.

CROSSWAYS COMMUNITY OUR VISION

CROSSWAYS COMMUNITY is dedicated to reaching out to the community and spreading awareness about mental ill-health. To many of us, mental illness can sound frightening or intimidating. And when we don’t understand something, we tend to shy away from it or make judgements based on preconceptions.

That’s why Crossways decided to produce this course. We wanted to explain a bit more about basic mental health and how to relate to other people (including those without mental ill-health).