Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association Newsletter December 2009
Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence. Helen Keller (1880-1968) American Writer
PRA's Open Day
PRA ran an open day on the 15th December for members, Trustees, Funders and friends. The objective was to showcase the educational initiatives that have been running and are being developed. Existing courses were seen in action, offering attendees the chance to sit in on a ceramics and photography workshop, whilst other work produced was shown with the screening of a members video, called 1a Darnley Road.
The video "1a Darnley Road" was screened in both the morning and afternoon. Darnley Road member, Karim Harvey, introduced the video in the morning whilst the afternoon screening was introduced by Ann Bensted - both of whom had contributed to the making of the video as a result of workshops led by Silvia Eder. "1a Darnley Road" gives an overview of PRA's services, talks about some of the courses that have been run for example the Citizen Journalism Course run by Social Spider and asked for our members views and experiences.
The open day was widely attended with members from Darnley Road, Stean Street, Southwood Smith and the Haringey projects. Also in attendance were our Trustees Karl Grossfield, Malcolm de M. A. Stewart and President and Trustee John Wilder. Serena Vento from the marketing agency, Klessi, who specialise in working with third sector organisation came along with the Managing Director and members of the account team from GolinHarris, a major communication agency in the city who this year raised funds for us by undertaking the London to Brighton bike ride. Pledges of further support were made at the event by both GolinHarris and the Tana Trust.
The open day was also the first opportunity for many people to see the changes made at Darnley Road since the relocation of the Groupwork Centre from Bayford Mews and the creation of the new 6- room counselling suite.
Our thanks to everyone who helped pull the event together including Calvin, Carola, Pearl, Simon, Silvia, Karim, Ann, Greg and Nick.
Introducing ISO 9001:2008
Another major step was made this month in the work to gain registration with a leading standards organisation for PRA's Plastics and Developments project. ISO 9001 is by far the world's most established quality framework, currently being used by over ¾ million organizations in 161 countries, and sets the standard not only for quality management systems, but management systems in general. It helps all kinds of organizations to succeed through improved customer satisfaction, staff motivation and continual improvement.
In December an external auditor undertook the first stage of an assessment leading to certification and, following its successful completion, we are now scheduled for the final assessment at the end of March 2010. Mirella Manni said "thank you to everyone who has helped in this first and important stage, our successful registration is crucial to the continued development of PRA".
Swedish Visitors
Another link was added to PRA's chain of international relationships on the 26th of October. A delegation of six professionals from Söderbymalmshallen School in Sweden came to visit us at our new offices in Hackney. They spent the morning at Darnley Road, refreshed with tea, coffee and biscuits. An enjoyable and mutually informative discussion took place. We were pleasantly surprised to find how similar our respective philosophies on working with disadvantaged sections in the community were. As an expression of thanks PRA received some lovely gifts from the delegation. We look forward to working together and sharing our experiences in the future.
Farewell & thank you to
Oscar Kjell, Haringey User Network Co-ordinator, who left to pursue full time studies. We thank him for all the good work he has done for the project. Susanna McKnight, Association Secretary. We thank her for all the support over the years and wish her all the best for the future.
Welcome to
Lotte Friedrich and Vivienne Cin-Ying Yip, who have joined our volunteers' team. Peter Johnson, who has joined the Haringey User Network in the role of Co-ordinator and Nicholas Rose, who has taken up the post of PRA Deputy Director. Greg Morter and Leonora Sharpe who have joined the Accredited Training team. We wish them all success in their new posts.
Open Day
We will organise an Open Day once all the refurbishment of our new Groupwork centre is completed and will inform you all. We hope you will join us.
The GolinHarris team will also be invited to our Open Day, so that everyone can meet them.
Darnley Road Activities
The restoration of the garden at the centre has reached a new phase thanks to the support of Lotte, our volunteer who assisted us in setting up a Gardening Group which runs every Wednesday afternoon. Then, thanks to financial support from the Tana Trust, we were able to bring in the expertise of Liz, a professional garden designer with many years of experience. Liz has taught us how to plant bulbs in the back garden, how to plant and create beautiful window boxes for the front windows and we are learning about the different plants and flowers available on different seasons. We all (Ann, Karim, Roy, Lotte, Debbie, Pearl, Regina and Ted) helped Liz to plant window boxes and tubs in the courtyard. We are very excited, because later we will learn how to grow vegetables that do not need a lot of sunlight, like tomatoes and carrots, in the back garden.
The Ceramics Workshop started in October. We have made jugs, bowls and plaques for the garden. "I like pounding the clay" says Karim who was surprised by how much he is enjoying the course.
We have Jewellery Making on a Monday and the teacher, Maxine, is very supportive and gives detailed instructions on how to make rings, necklaces and bracelets.
French Lessons are in full flow on a Wednesday morning. We are learning the days of the week and the months of the year.
Carbon Smart Award
Climate change is a current topic and one of the challenges for our modern society. Although, research has been carried out for decades, there are many things that remain uncertain, but there is also much that has been established beyond reasonable doubt.
Last month the United Nations Climate Change Conference meet in Copenhagen. However, there certainly was a topic that would have not been discussed there, that is the increasing concern about the effects on climate change on people with a history of mental health, and the likely of an increase in the overall suffering of mental disorder worldwide. The Psychological Medicine Journal, by Cambridge University Press suggested that many of the most important health impacts of global warming will be on mental health. Research so far has focused on the effect on physical health but the editorial stressed the need to look at the effect on mental health and the potential consequences. They suggested that climate change could adversely affect those with existing mental health problems and increase the susceptibility of people with mental health problems who live in the poorest countries.
PRA takes the topic of climate change and carbon emission seriously and we look at ways to improve our carbon footprint. This step has resulted in PRA being awarded the Carbon Smart award. The work does not stop here and we are constantly looking for ways to improve.
PRA is now a Carbon Smart Blue Award Holder.
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