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.

Course Cancelled

Unfortunately the Stress Control course planned for January at Prestonpans Library has had to be cancelled.  Not enough people had booked a place on the course to make it worthwhile.

Rescheduled Soon

The course will run again soon at a venue and time to be confirmed.  If you are interested in attending this course, please call 0131 536 8101 to find out more and note your interest.  This will help us plan where and when the next course will run.

More Information

For a little more information about the Stress Control Course, please see my original post here.

Change of Web Host

As part of our continued improvements to both ELPsych! and DisabledPeople.org, we have migrated both sites across to a new, UK based Web Host.  Hopefully this will make the site management side a little easier.

For readers, we have added a few little features that make it easier for you to follow both sites.

• Twitter – Both ELPsych! and DisabledPeople.org can be followed on Twitter by navigating to http://twitter.com/DisabledPeople.  Any updates to either site will be Tweeted immediately.
• If you would prefer to receive updates by email, simply pop your address into the box, top right.  You’ll get a confirmation email from Feedburner asking you to “Opt-In”.  If you change your mind later, there is an “Unsubscribe” link in every email.
• You can also use our Feed in your favourite Feed Reader.  Click the big orange square top right.
• Finally, you can get all my update, including my personal blog at http://meJamie.com

Hopefully this makes it a little easier for everyone to find our content.  Remember, you’re more than welcome to comment as well!

Support Group Details Added

I’ve just added details of the two Bi-Polar Support Groups that meet in East Lothian.  One runs in Musselburgh at Changes, the other in Haddington at Tynepark.

For a little more information and times, click here for the advert.

Do You Attend A Group In East Lothian?

If you run or attend a group in East Lothian that has a Mental Health theme, send us the details.  As long as the group is relavent to Mental Health, we will be happy to carry a notice for you.  Just Contact Us!

If your group is related more to physical disability, please see our sister site:   DisabledPeople.org