Recovery Focus
Two new sites added this morning with a focus on Recovery. http://scottishrecovery.net describes recovery as follows:
“Recovery is being able to live a meaningful and satisfying life, as defined by each person, in the presence or absence of symptoms. It is about having control over and input into your own life. Each individual’s recovery, like his or her experience of the mental health problems or illness, is a unique and deeply personal process.”
The second, http://recoveryinnovations.org is an American website that offers a very broad view of Recovery concepts. It gives a good overall view of what Mental Health Recovery is.
New Category
To try and help navigation, I have added an extra “Recovery Focus” category. You’ll find all our links on the Link Library page.
Links to Add?
If you know of a link we should be listing, please add it to the comments at the bottom of the Link Library page. Feedback is always a useful thing! If something is missing, you are having trouble finding the information you need or you just have a general comment or suggestion, please Get In Touch.
Advocacy Link
Just added a link for the Scottish Independent Advocacy Alliance (http://siaa.org.uk) to the National Organisations and General Interest catagories. The SIAA is an umberella organisation for Advocacy in Scotland. They have a useful search facility that will help you find a local Advocacy service.
Healthy Working Lives
This is an organisation sponsored by the NHS. The site(http://www.healthyworkinglives.com) gives advice to both employers and employees about ways that improving the work environment can lead to a healthier and more motivated workforce. There is particular advice about the Disability Discrimination Act and how this impacts on employers, especially when thinking about Reasonable Adjustment to the workplace.
What’s The Point?
SAMH produce a seasonal magazine called The Point. It claims to be an Alternative Voice on Mental Health Issues and always carries several articles that are well worth a read.
Their Winter 2009 issue has an article about the Suicide Prevention work led by the Scottish Government and Choose Life. Of particular note is SAMH’s decision to bring back their publication “After a Suicide”. It has been revised, updated and republished with help from Choose Life and can be downloaded from http://www.samh.org.uk. Alternatively, you can request a print version by phoning 0800 917 3466.
Wired
A second article in this edition looks at some individuals use of the internet to help both themselves and others get through the turmoil of mental health difficulties. A couple of the blogs they refer to were already in our links library, but now I’ve added a couple more!
If you read / write a blog or website you’d like others to know about, please let us know. Either add a comment below or get in touch via our Contact Page.
* The Point is published quarterly by SAMH. You can read it online via their website. http://samh.org.uk
Mental Health Workbooks
I’ve just added a link to the Western Australia Centre for Clinical Interventions. This is a site funded by the Australian Government that deals with Psychotherapy, Research and Training in the Mental Health field.
Of particular interest is their Workbook section. It has the slightly strange title of Consumer Resources and you may have to scroll down the page a little to find the Workbook links but it’s well worth the effort.
Here you will find 11 PDF documents meant for easy downloading and printing. The subjects covered are:
- Back From The Bluez – Coping With Depression
- Keeping Your Balance – Coping With Bi-Polar Disorder
- Shy No Longer – Coping With Social Anxiety
- Panic Stations – Coping With Panic Attacks
- What? Me Worry!?! – Mastering Your Worries
- Improving Self Esteem – Overcoming Low Self Esteem
- Put Off Procrastinating - Overcoming Procrastination
- Assert Yourself – Improve Your Assertiveness
- Perfectionism In Perspective – Overcoming Perfectionism
- Overcoming Disordered Eating – Part A
- Overcoming Disordered Eating – Part B
The site gives a short introduction to each Workbook helping you to work out which downloads might be most useful. It’s also nice to see subjects like Procrastination and Perfectionism in among the more usual information on Depression and Anxiety.
All the workbooks are well worth a look. Please feel free to let us know what you think in the comments below.
The Secret Life of a Manic Depressive
The BBC website features a section called Ouch. It is aimed at disabled people and in the main, is written by disabled people too. In my opinion, one of the best bits of the site is their podcast (now referred to as a “Talk Show”. This is a monthly offering available for download.
For some reason I’ve fallen behind with my listening, so I’ve just heard a recording from early this summer featuring an interview of Mental Health blogger Seaneen. She has written her blog “Mentally Interesting: The Secret Life of a Manic Depressive” for several years, recording her experiences of Bipolar Disorder and the Mental Health system. The reason for the interview was that her blog had been turned into a play for Radio 4 called “Do’s and Dont’s for the Mentally Interesting”
New Link Category
Whilst reading Seaneen’s blog and clicking through a few of the other blogs she links to on her site, I thought that this is really a resource we should be looking at more closely. Many of the articles I’ve read are very personal in nature but they are also very valuable in helping others to understand what is going on. There is a wealth of personal experience documenting advice tips, explanations of procedures and theories about how services can be developed and improved. This, combined with the personal feelings and emotions involved makes compelling and educational reading. I’m sure it could also offer comfort and support to others experiencing similar emotional roller-coasters.
So, I’ve started a Blogroll in the traditional sense. A list of blogs written by people with a “Lived Experience” of Mental Health problems or possibly people with experience of the Mental Health system that have something to say about that experience.
I don’t want to censor or discriminate. If you know of a blog you feel should be on our list, let me know and I’ll add it. Give me your reasons and I’ll try to add an article too!
