New Mental Health Recovery Group

Here, Elaine Wilkes, Carers Education Worker writes about a new group to support people in Leeds:

I am really excited this morning along with my colleague Lokhi Roy!  We both work as part of Leeds Carers and stated a new group last night based on Mental Health Recovery!

The group runs at Vale Circles once every two weeks from 5.30pm-7pm.  It is based on a group that has been running at Lovell Park for five years. Click here for the dates and venue details.

So why the excitement?  Well I experience depression and this is a group where anyone can come along if they have an interest in mental recovery.  This is:

• Workers
• People who have mental health problems
• Carers
• Anyone who is a combination of all the above

The group focuses on:

• Hope that recovery can happen
• Looking at things in a positive way
• Knowing we experience negative things but looking at the type of things we do to overcome these

My dad died last March and I went to the Lovell Park  group  the week after his funeral.  I was ok but still at times tearful.  A member of the group mentioned railways (which my Dad loved) and I could feel myself becoming tearful.  I did not feel the need to hide the tears but talked about being upset by his death.  This led to other people talking about how they had overcome difficult things including deaths of people close to them.  I went away from that group feeling supported and more positive.  We also talked about techniques that can help all us cope at tough times

My hope for the Vale Circles Recovery Group is that we can develop a safe place where anyone feels comfortable to talk about things that are emotional and hard.  For me the key thing is we don’t stop there but focus on hope, how we can overcome pain and techniques to help all us of do this.

I don’t think it matters whether someone is a service user, carer or worker or all of these.  What matters to me is that we are people  and we all have things that are hard.  This group is about overcoming these things but also have fun and humour along the way.

If you would like further information about these sessions or to book yourself a place please contact 0113 85 54445 and ask for Elaine Wilkes or Lokhi Roy.