World Mental Health Day 2007

World Mental Health Day is taking place on Wednesday, October 10, and Norfolk and Waveney Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust is taking part in initiatives as follows:

October 9:
Sing Your Heart Out, Norwich

The award-winning Sing Your Heart Out series of singing workshops will be featured in a Channel 5 programme called Mad for Music at 7.25pm.

Led by Trust psychotherapist Tracy Morefield, who lives near Beccles, the workshops invite service users, staff, carers and friends to sing together.

More details at www.syho.org – including a link to a YouTube video containing interviews with Tracy Morefield and service users Christopher Bridgman and Penny Holden.

October 10 to October 12:
Fruits of the Mind exhibition, Norwich

Now in its fifth year, the Fruits of the Mind exhibition and sale showcases artwork by people with severe mental ill health, their carers and mental health staff.

It is taking place at the King’s Centre, in King Street, Norwich – open from 10am to 4.30pm on Wednesday and Thursday and from 10am to 3pm on Friday. Artwork includes oil painting, acrylics, crafts, postcards and sculptures, priced between £15 and £250.

Among the exhibitors are Michelle Lock, a self-taught artist who has overcome mental illness to study floristry and gain employment, and William Fairbank, who has short-term memory loss following a head injury and cannot think into the future. William, who lives in Bridgham, near East Harling, will be presenting a film entitled Living in the Present.

October 10:
Emotional health and wellbeing events, West Norfolk

The primary mental health team (which works alongside GPs) is holding two library-based events. In the morning, the team are inviting members of the public to their stand at Swaffham Library to talk about emotional wellbeing, offer information about services and encourage people to join as members of the proposed NHS Foundation Trust for mental health in Norfolk and Waveney.

The event will be repeated at King’s Lynn Library in the afternoon.

October 10:
Whole Life event, King’s Lynn

The adult mental health team is holding an event at the Vancouver Centre, King’s Lynn shopping mall, from 10am to 3pm to promote Whole Life and the acceptance of people with mental ill health. The West Norfolk staff have made reducing stigma a key pledge and will be inviting visitors to their stand to talk about its consequences on people’s wellbeing.

Whole Life is the approach adopted by the Trust in looking after its service users, seeing them as a person against the backdrop of their home lives and surroundings, rather than treating them in isolation from it.