Tel: 01753 869755 | Fax: 01753 842852
Mental Health Awareness Day
Cardinal Clinic hosted a Mental Health Awareness Day on Thursday 13th October 2011. below is a synopsis of the talks and workshops.
Body Image and Eating Disorders
Martin Carroll
Martin Carroll presented with two service users that have suffered from an eating disorder and are now in recovery. They discussed how body image is relevant to everyone, not just people with eating disorders. It was argued that although developing a healthier relationship with the body was an important part of recovery, a negative view of the body was not the primary cause of the disorder. The two service users shared their experience to show how issues such as depression, low self-esteem, relationship difficulties, and the challenges of identity formation were paramount. These struggles seemed to lead to a search for a sense of security, achievement, and control which was gained (although only temporarily) though a focus on controlling shape and weight. They also share their experience of the journey towards recovery that included taking ownership of the problem and using the supports and therapies available to engage in the terrifying process of giving up the eating disorder and ultimately pursuing greater meaning in life.
Depression
Jane Perer
Stress Management & Mindfulness
Dawn Lankester
The workshop focused on the development and understanding of stress. Taking a short exploratory view of the antecedents’ of stress and the physical, psychological and emotional effects.
The workshop also briefly explained the practice of Mindfulness and the positive effects in the management of stress and other emotional disorders. The attendees then were invited to participate in Mindfulness practice to gain a better understanding.
Dr Fivos Cacoullis & Vicky Carroll
In our workshop “Adolescence happens to the family” we looked at some of the inevitable developmental steps that take place during adolescence and lead to conflict with the parental authority figures. This enabled a discussion to take place regarding the change of parenting style required to help manage this transition, into a healthy working relationship between adult and teenager.
Eating Mindfully
Anu Sayal-Bennett
Eating mindfully requires a non -judgmental compassionate stance and advocates non dieting and body and self -acceptance. How we eat is not about what's on the
plate but what's already inside us and we need to reconnect mind and body and be fully present. During this workshop participants completed questionnaires to assess
whether they are mindless eaters, explore psychological reasons for mindless eating and are introduced to exercises and strategies to promote Mindful Eating.
Stigma
Dr Andy Macaulay
The consequences of stigma can be profound, leading to significant social disadvantage. It can be brought about by a sense of fear and alienation. There is also a common factor that individuals with mental illness feel worthless and don’t expect much. Sometimes the behavior and symptoms can reinforce stereotypes.
Research has shown that there are 3 areas that can affect stigma. The first is protest; this involves writing and communicating with editors etc. This needs to be done with a degree of sensitivity as it can easily have the opposite effect of that intended and cause antagonism. The second area is that of education and this can involve raising awareness about mental illness in general as well as highlighting public health issues concerning drugs and alcohol. The third area that has shown benefit is for individuals to have contact with patients who experience mental illness and perhaps this is one of the most powerful tools available.
The Mental Health Awareness Day also contributed to reducing stigma by education and providing the opportunity of listening to a number of moving stories of successful treatment. The day was very oversubscribed which in itself is immensely encouraging, perhaps demonstrating that people do want to be better informed about mental illness after all.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Anxiety Management
Rose Aghdami
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a therapy approach shown to be helpful in addressing various psychological difficulties, including anxiety.
It is based on the beliefs that:
What we THINK determines how we FEEL
and
How we FEEL determines how we BEHAVE
It makes sense, then, to learn to be more aware of our thinking patterns, as they are so crucial to our feelings and actions. We tend to believe our thoughts, even fleeting thoughts, and feel and act accordingly. CBT helps a person recognise their thinking patterns, then re-evaluate their thoughts to check whether they are helpful and accurate. If not, then alternative, more appropriate views are developed, and as a result, feelings and behaviour change positively.
Let's look now at how the CBT model can be helpful in addressing anxiety. Consider the following scenario:
A person is in their office building, a lovely old converted barn, catching up on some work late in the evening. They believe they are alone. They hear a noise.
One person in such a situation may THINK 'There must be an intruder. I am in danger.' They FEEL anxious, and BEHAVE accordingly, calling someone on the phone, going to investigate or hiding.
Another person, faced with the same situation may THINK 'Old barns are full of beams which creak from time to time. That's not a problem.' They FEEL relaxed and BEHAVE accordingly, carrying on with their work.
We can see that the same scenario evokes very different feelings and actions depending on the person's thoughts about the noise.
CBT helps an anxious person to feel more in charge of their feelings instead of feeling overwhelmed and controlled by anxiety, by encouraging the development of new skills. Firstly, to recognize when thinking patterns have become unhelpful and inappropriate, and secondly, to re-evaluate thoughts and introduce more helpful perspectives, thereby changing how a person feels and behaves.
Additionally, CBT can help an anxious person overcome the physical symptoms of anxiety by developing some relaxation skills which ease the physical agitation, thereby enabling thoughts to be clearer. Again, once the person is confident in applying these skills, they feel more in control of their anxiety instead of feeling that the anxiety is controlling them.
Good Mental Health in the Work Place
Emily Wheeler, Depression Alliance
This workshop looked how mental health conditions, in particular depression has an effect on the work place. Statistically Depression and anxiety affects between 8 and 12 per cent of the population in any year with an estimated cost to the economy in England and Wales of 8 billion in benefits. Loss of output due to depression and anxiety is estimated to be 12 billion per year (1% national income). With this in mind, employers need to be more equipped for creating a healthy workplace.
The workshop focused on what? Initiatives are currently in place to support people affected by mental health conditions such as the Disability Discrimination Act? DDA: reasonable adjustments, New Horizons ten year plan: everybody’s business, The Public Health strategy: IAPT, wellbeing, NICE guidelines: range of treatments.
We then looked at practical ways of maintaining good mental health with a handout so that group members could create a Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP) for work. This practical document encourages people to think about their triggers, early warning signs and empowers them to put together a plan to help alleviate stress in the workplace and help prevent illness.
Self-Harm Workshop
Service user
As part of the Mental Health Awareness day hosted by the Cardinal Clinic on World Mental Health day, consultant psychologist Marie-Clare Mendham ran a workshop on self-harm. This was well attended by students from local schools and colleges, as well as teachers and members of the medical sector.
Initially the attendees were split into four groups, each with a different task to discuss. Three groups had questions to answer on different dilemmas and issues surrounding self-harm, and one had a case study to read and think about. The groups found the varied topics thought provoking, and there were some very diverse opinions.
Some of the questions asked were: Should self-harm be allowed in inpatient units?
Are self-harmers entitled to the same medical treatment as the general public?
Is self-harm a suicide attempt?
Who self-harms?
The workshop was then brought to a close by a spokesperson from each group bringing forward their questions and ideas for everyone to think about and debate. Leaflets were handed out at the end, so the participants could keep what they had learned in mind. One was written from a self-harmers perspective, and detailed how they would like professionals to respond to them. The other was a leaflet designed to support individuals who self-harm, and help them make more positive choices, as well as moving away from self-harm. The session was deemed to be very helpful by all, and much enjoyed.
Self-harm is a controversial and emotive subject amongst both health care professionals and the public, and is generally the most misunderstood of all psychiatric problems. There is a lot of stigma attached to self-harm, it is widely viewed as attention seeking, but is always more complex than that. Self-harm takes many forms, some of which may seem surprising for example tattoo and piercings. It is a phenomenon that it is indiscriminate in whom it may affect. This is contrary to the popular belief only teenagers or girls self-harm. It is important people are more understanding of self-harm now, as it is becoming more prevalent within society.
Addictions
Beth Quickstrom & Sally Pincott
Beth and Sally spoke briefly about addiction being the use and continued involvement with a substance or activity despite the negative consequences. A psychological and physical dependence develops over a period of time in the search for pleasure and relief of pain. This can develop into an excessive and compulsive lifestyle.
The three most destructive being alcohol, drugs and gambling. People do also use a number of other ‘mood altering’ activities and substances examples being food, stimulants, exercise, work, social network sites.
Alcohol is the third major health hazard in the world after heart disease and cancer – it also contributes to these. Treated as an illness, with help and support in taking responsibility for, and making changes following detoxification, a person may lead a full life.
An Alcoholics Anonymous speaker then talked about Fellowship and how it has helped so much in her recovery and what it can offer others.
A Service User also spoke of his recovery experience both at Cardinal Clinic and in AA.