mental health

NT LIFE launches September 2023 prospectus

Lighthouse, angel of the north paintingNT LIFE, the Recovery College for North Tyneside, has launched their new prospectus for September 2023, for sessions beginning week commencing on 4th September and again on 23rd October.

Courses include their Get2Gether drop-in, vegetarian cooking, DBT skills, creative writing, dance, art, book club, photography, emotional regulation toolkit a neurodivergent support group and more. You can view all of their upcoming sessions in the prospectus.

Booking is essential. To get involved, you must first complete the expression of interest form here. The team will contact you and arrange an informal chat and then if you are keen to get involved, they will get you enrolled as a student of NT LIFE and choose the activities or courses you would like to get involved with.

NT LIFE: Helping people learn positive new ways to deal with life’s stresses, understand themselves better and find purpose.

 

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Exciting start to NT LIFE Recovery College’s fifth year of deliveries

Jess Shaw smilingAs September 2023 approaches, we recognise the growth we have made since our inception in 2019, with only one staff member employed for 3 days/week; NT LIFE has developed and is now proud to welcome a fourth person to the staff team, Jess Shaw.
Congratulations Jess, we are excited to see the progress you will make with us, not least your involvement in our new Neurodivergence Support Group and also in the development of a monthly newsletter. If you would like to contribute anything mental health and wellbeing related to this newsletter please email: [email protected].
Jess who has volunteered at for NT LIFE for 3 years and was previously a Young persons Co-Production worker at VODA’s Discover Me project, transferred to NT LIFE at the beginning of August. Our staff team is now four strong: 2 full time and 2 part-time workers.
Julie BishopWe would also like to acknowledge Julie Bishop in completing her first full year as a paid worker at NT LIFE. Julie has made a huge impact with DBT Skills training, so much so that we have had to create an additional time slot to accommodate the growth in enquiries. She has also used her OCD lived experience to enhance and organise our enrolment and booking system, and developed the Get 2 Gether group, which means time from enquiry to attendance has been drastically shortened to as little as 10 days. We know from feedback that with so many services having long waiting lists, this is a welcomed improvement for our participants. A huge thank you to Julie.
With the increased numbers of staff, NT LIFE can now progress to taking our service to the west of the North Tyneside Borough. Our plan is that in January 2024 we can offer a range of mental health and wellbeing courses and support accessible in the Killingworth, Camperdown, Seaton Burn area with several sessions per week. If you know of anyone is this area that would like to attend a steering group to determine the logistics of this i.e. venue, days, times, topics of interest etc please email [email protected].
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Yapp Charitable Trust

 

 

The Trust make grants to small registered charities with a total annual expenditure of less than £40,000 to sustain their existing work within the following areas:

  • Elderly people
  • Children and young people aged 5 to 25
  • People with disabilities or mental health problems
  • Moral welfare – people trying to overcome life-limiting problems of a social, rather than medical, origin (such as addiction, relationship difficulties, abuse, offending)
  • Education and learning (with a particular interest in people who are educationally disadvantaged, whether adults or children)

Grants are for core funding and are only awarded to registered charities that have been formally established for at least three years.

The Trust prioritises:

  • Work that is unattractive to the general public or unpopular with other funders
  • Services that help to improve the lives of marginalised, disadvantaged or isolated people
  • Applicants that can demonstrate an effective use of volunteers
  • Charities that seek to be preventive and aim to change opinion and behaviour through raising awareness of issues, education and campaigning
  • Applicants that can demonstrate (where feasible) an element of self-sustainability by charging subscriptions/fees to service users

There are no deadlines specified.

Grant size: Up to £3,000 per year for up to three years

Application process: Yapp Charitable Trust website

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A Little Box of Hope for North Tyneside

NT Life Boxes of Hope from Robin on Vimeo.

Participants of VODA’s NT LIFE Recovery College in North Tyneside received a special surprise at their door recently with the delivery of a Little Box of Hope to help support them through this challenging time.

NT LIFE – which is funded by the North Tyneside CCG – created 200 Little Boxes of Hope, each containing a series of exercises, contacts, poems and motivational quotes and a number of small gifts, each with an explanation of why they have been included have been collated and distributed with help from a number of volunteers, support from the team at One Below at the Silverlink and funding from the North East Suicide Prevention Network.

Over the course of the COVID-19 crisis, NT LIFE Recovery College worker Ali Donkin has had to completely rethink the support offered to participants. Part of the ethos of NT LIFE is the ability to come together to share experiences and learn how to manage our own wellbeing and mental health. However, the coronavirus has (temporarily) put a stop to these face to face activities.

Ali quickly adapted NT LIFE to ensure that she is still able to support those who need it via online resources, with the NT LIFE Facebook page becoming a central point of contact for daily support and resources. The Facebook page and website feature a range of online resources including the 11:11 Mindfulness 5 Minute mindfulness journal, downloadable activities and free courses, alongside home delivered activity packs from the team at VODA. The NT LIFE course facilitators have also created a range of online sessions accessible via video conferencing platform Zoom.

It became clear that some of the people involved in NT LIFE were finding the lockdown particularly difficult and so Ali decided to create a Little Box of Hope to help them through. Ali commented: “I created the Little Box of Hope firstly to reach out and let people know they are not alone and to help them through these challenging times. There is always someone on the outside thinking of them and willing to help. They have worth and value even if they don’t feel that way right now. If at the very least it makes someone smile for a moment, in spite of their anxieties and fears, then we really have achieved something important.”

Some of the items in the box are to give the person a moment to STOP and take time to adjust their thinking, to recognise these feelings are not permanent. There are also items that are metaphors, for example the yoyo – a distraction – the soothing motion of the yoyo on the string, but also a reminder of simpler times playing with childhood toys. The box also includes practical things such as the list of crisis contacts and helplines. There are tools and techniques for dealing with feelings and also some things that are simply humorous.

“I recall many a time when I have witnessed in myself and others how humour can bring us back from the brink,” says Ali.

What do we hope this box will achieve? Ali comments: “My deepest hope is that for anyone who really is at their lowest, is thinking seriously about ending their life, it stops them in the moment and offers an alternative choice. If it prevents even one suicide then this little box of hope will be priceless.”

Feedback so far has shown that the boxes have been well received:

“I was having a really bad day today in fact I was close to ending everything. I can’t describe how much it means to me. I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart. To know someone thinks enough to put something like that together and deliver it is the most amazing thing I have ever had.”

“Paddy and Linda Rogan are both in their seventies. I’ve been shopping for them for the last couple of months. Paddy has dementia so Linda can’t leave him and he doesn’t understand the social distancing policies everywhere.” 

 

 

 

“My sister has been living with mental ill health for 30 years and doesn’t get out much, lockdown or not. She really appreciated her box.”

 

 

 

“Thank you so much for my lovely gift and thoughts. It was so lovely of you. it moved me tears. You are a diamond. Is there any other stone more precious because if there is I’ll have to start calling you that one?”

“Just wanted to say a huge thank you for my box today. The box made me cry and made me feel so special. It’s absolutely beautiful and I will treasure it, thank you so much.”

“Thank you so much for the comfort packs for me and my mam, I don’t know if you know this but our cat was knocked over and killed early yesterday morning. We are going to use the box as a memory box for her.”

The boxes were collated and delivered by a team of volunteers, who also found that they benefited from the activity.  With volunteers commenting:

“On Friday for the first time in a long while I felt excited and involved.”

“Thank you so much for your help, support and the laughter we had on Friday packing the Little Boxes of Hope. It was an amazing day from my perspective and having delivered some of these over the weekend they are getting a great response.”

 

 

 

 

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New web app helps people find mental health services

The Hub of Hope is a first of its kind, national mental health database which brings together organisations and charities, large and small, from across the country who offer mental health advice and support, together in one place. The app is simple and effective and helps people find mental health services in their local area. The new app has been developed by a charity called Chasing the Stigma.

To use the app, you simply enter your postcode and the search will bring back a range of support services, which can then be filtered by a range of mental health options.

Hub of hope is free to use. Access the Hub of Hope app here. 

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