I was so proud to be asked to join the planning Committee for the Working Together Forum this year and when the position came up to Chair the entire
event, I jumped at the chance!
The
more work I do with a particular organization, the more eager I am to take on
more responsibilities and bigger opportunities. I guess I see it almost like most work where
there’s a promotion in sight and like many things in my blogging career, I’ve had
to discover and sort of, decide for myself, what this means. What a ‘promotion’
means to me. What I’d class as a ‘step up;’ and chairing an entire event for
such a wonderful, supportive, and inspirational organization like Richmond Fellowship (RF), seemed like the right role to do just that. And as I did last
year, I also agreed to co-facilitate a workshop with the awesome Emily Dell
from the RF Communications team (more on that later!).
I
was privileged to be able to travel down to London the day before the event and
after we realized that five of us (from the planning Committee) were booked into the
same hotel (the Premier Inn Euston London), we met up for dinner late that night. It was a great chance to get
to know one another and - after many conference calls over the last few months
- put faces to voices! And it meant that on the morning of the Forum, we were
all able to travel to the venue together and avoid numerous taxi fayres and
many frozen ‘Maps’ apps! We went very early so that we could all help to set up
the room (at ORT House) and the foyer which held the table to sign-in, a table to sign-up to a
workshop, and many tables with tea, coffee, and pastries!
10:00
– 10:10
We
kicked off the event with me doing the housekeeping; explaining where the
toilets and fire exits were located and each room for the four available
workshops.
10:10
– 10:20
I
then introduced the amazing and hilarious Rachel Perkins, Chair of the Working
Together Committee (which I’m now an official member of!) and she gave a
welcome speech talking about her recent appointment to her position, and the
theme of the event: ‘My Health, My Happiness.’ She gave examples of instances
where our physical health has impacted our mental health and vice versa; they were
all brilliant examples because they were ones that everyone could identify with
and not solely staff or solely service users (as a mixture were in attendance).
Rachel’s general attitude and demeanor is infectiously cheerful and uplifting,
so she was the perfect choice for the welcome speech because she got everyone
into the right kind of mood and attitude for the day ahead and really helped to
set a positive atmosphere.
10:20
– 10:50
Next,
we had Ste Hinton and Lizi Baker (members of the Forum planning Committee) host
an ‘Icebreaker quiz’ on all things mental and physical health. Everyone really
enjoyed themselves and it was actually really educational; we learnt – among many
things - how many bones are in the feet and hands (105), how many chambers are
in a heart (4) and that up until the Mental Health Discrimination Act in 2013,
a person who’d been sectioned (for over six months under the Mental Health Act1983) were unable to become MPs.
10:50
– 11:00
We
then had a little presentation from Emily Dell, RF’s Group Internal
Communications Officer about the ENRICH Awards 2019. As these are internal
awards and I’m unsure how many of my readers would be appropriate for them, you
can find out more info & make your nominations here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/RFEnrichAwards2019
11:00
– 11:20
After
Emily’s short talk we heard the recovery stories of Emma Voss and Barry Long.
Emma spoke about how the loss of her Father and having to file for bankruptcy
with her Husband, had affected her mental health and led her on a completely
different career path that was both uplifting and refreshing. Barry spoke about
how it took a suicide attempt for him to get the much-needed help he needed for
his mental health and that now, he works in personal training and gets a huge
rush of endorphins and a sense of achievement in his fitness routine.
11:20
– 11:35
Break
11:35
- `12:25
Immediately
after the break, the crowd divided, and everyone went to the room assigned to
the workshop they had chosen. I co-facilitated one, so I was unable to
experience any of the four on both the morning and afternoon session, but we
ran four workshops which were all different yet based around the general ‘My
Health, My Happiness’ theme of the Forum. There was one called ‘Just A Little
Oopmh’ which was a gentle exercise workshop ran by Joe McPhoy and Lizi Baker.
The second was ‘Good Food, Good Mood’ – a chance to learn the importance of
eating a healthy and balanced diet – facilitated by Ste Hinton and Mick Curtis.
Third, we had ‘Reap Heaps of Deep Sleep’ with Michael Clarke and Beverley Clay;
this workshop provided the chance for attendees to find out how essential sleep
is to a person’s physical and mental health. Finally, the fourth workshop was
the one I co-facilitated with Emily Dell; ‘Great Days Always.’ In our workshop,
we discussed the importance of recognizing that not everyone experiences a ‘great
day’ in the same way and that it means something different for each person. To
illustrate this Emily and I had slides throughout our PowerPoint presentation
that gave examples of our own definitions of a ‘great day’ and we spoke about the
things we can do to boost our chances of making our day ‘great’ and things we
should avoid doing so that we can have a ‘great’ day. At the end of the fifty-minute
session, we had designed an activity for everyone to be able to complete a set
of weekly goals of things they’d like to do to maintain their mental and
physical health e.g. ‘get at least 8 hours sleep’ or ‘take medication every day.’
12:25
– 13:25
Lunch
13:25
– 13:50
When
I saw ‘Boogie with Tubsy’ on the agenda I was concerned! I couldn’t remember it
ever being discussed in our planning meetings so I had no idea what it was
going to involve or entail. When Bhupinder Kullar got up on the stage with a
really big drum I figured this was going to mean some movement…
13:50
– 14:10
After
working up a sweat, we were all grateful for a slightly less interactive
presentation from Emily Bromley of Big White Wall. Emily provided everyone with
insight into the supportive, and positive network offering help to people with
a wide range of mental health and wellbeing issues.
14:10
– 14:30
We
then heard from Data Systems Development Officer, Christina Hare who provided
everyone with an update on the Richmond Fellowship Client Portal; a service
designed to allow Service Users the ability to access more information that RF
hold on them and contact their Support Worker. The initial presentation on this
was heard at a previous event I’d attended and originally, the idea was to
allow Service Users access to their case notes too but I, and a few others
raised a
14:30
– 14:45
Break
14:45
– 15:35
Workshops
(repeated from the morning)
15:35
– 16:00
We
wrapped up the day with the presentation of certificates (one was for me!), some
thank you’s, and a few closing remarks from myself and Rachel Perkins. After
seeing there were no certificates for them, I thought that the particular four RF
staff who’d been heavily involved in the event; Lizi, Bev, Emily, and Pam deserved
a round of applause too!
ANNOUNCEMENT: THE RECOVERY FOCUS WEBSITE LAUNCHED 4.11.2018 AND CAN BE FOUND HERE: https://www.recoveryfocus.org.uk/