SPECIFIC OUTCOMES AND HOW THEY ARE MEASURED.
1. a) This year 5 survivors will be supported back to employment, 10 Survivors will become volunteers, 5 will go on to further training, 2 will start their own business and 10 will get the support they need at home and with the RECOVERY activities. RECOVERY will enable the Survivors to get work experience and regain their confidence by volunteering with the charity. Last week two volunteers, who had volunteered with us for 1-2 years, were awarded some funding by REMPLOY and now have been offered paid work in the charity. Also we give references and the volunteers can put us on their CV to explain gaps in paid employment.
These outcomes will be measured because the ‘Activity Monitoring Form’ is monitoring all the volunteers taking part in the Employment for Survivors course. This looks at the possible targets for the Survivors i.e. further training, voluntary work, employment or their own business.
b) All survivors will be empowered to help themselves and others. The RECOVERY RENDEZVOUS training in Good Mental Health practice and The Employment For Survivors’ Course shows people how to move on from behaving like a victim and to take charge of their life. Eventually they support other Survivors in the Community as a RECOVERY Worker. The Survivors are visited in their own home by a paid RECOVERY Leader who takes along a volunteer who is being trained in supporting Survivors.
Survivor and Volunteer Feedback forms, that are being quantified and simplified on our Computer Database, will measure these outcomes. These forms will chart the progress that the Survivor has made and may be shown as a graph.
c) All survivors will feel part of and loved by the community. The Survivors are given an opportunity to come fundraising with the charity. We campaign against Compulsion by talking to the wider public about how choice and control in peoples’ lives is best for Mental Health. It is therapeutic and encouraging for Survivors to see the compassion of the general public towards Mental Health. As less people are being sectioned (85% of Mental Health Sufferers are voluntary now) there is less fear and therefore less discrimination. Most people in the community agree that everyone should be allowed to choose to go to a Psychiatric Ward if they feel they need it.
The best way for Survivors to feel loved by the community would be for the NHS and the Psychiatric Services to agree that people should only go to a hospital or on drugs if they agree. Training and research into carers’ reactions to family members with Mental Health problems should assess and improve the environment for the Survivor and their family.
RICAP PROJECT DESCRIPTION
RICAPP starts with the home visiting element (5-10 hours) and leads to a full recovery when the doctor can gently take the patient off their drugs and discharge them. When the Survivor feels able to come into the studio the Personal Budget of 5-10 hours still pays for their visits and support in the studio. The Personal Budget continues to pay RECOVERY Staff with the support they will need during the Volunteering stage in the RECOVERY Studio and Office.
RECOVERY is a Work Experience Centre. Sometimes the volunteering can lead to funding and employment with us. Alternatively the volunteering experience on the CV and as a reference can lead to a job outside the charity. We need further funding from Health Lotteries because we start the support before the funding for the Personal Budgets comes through. The PBs (Personal Budgets) take 3-4 months to be processed. Also at the moment not everyone is eligible for the PBs they have to be a Critical or Substantial risk. So the funding from Health Lottery will pay for those people who are not seen as eligible but still need support to recover. The government has promised that eventually everyone who applies for a PB will get one.
RICAPP TIME-LINE
Normal purposeful life
Recovery
Employment
Volunteering
Home Support Support in Studio
OTHER RECOVERY ACTIVITIES AND PROJECTS
The Heritage Mental Health Project – Research into the treatment of Mental Health over the last 2,000 years. We wrote a book ‘Leicestershire and Rutland Heritage Of Mental Health’. We did an exhibition with 7 large panels that we took all over Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland in 2009. We wrote creative Life-Stories of 6 Survivors in two books ‘Leicester Survivors’ and ‘If you do not lose Everything.’
The Beatitude Youth Project – that goes into schools to help young people to enjoy lessons by learning to still their minds, learning about being rather than doing and being creative.
The PAWS Project – This trains RECOVERY dogs to be Emotional Assistance Dogs to help Survivors in their recovery from Mental Health problems. It works alongside RICAPP with Personal Budgets but has a different emphasis with the 15 steps training plan for Survivors and their Dogs.
Fundraising/Campaigning – We do Stalls and Street Collections every Saturday throughout the year. Also during the week we take the stall, the exhibition and talk at Networking events, Conferences and events with an interest in Mental Health to spread awareness about the campaign against compulsion. We believe that when the wider public can be free from the fear of being forced onto drugs or into hospital against their will then the discrimination and stigma of Mental Health needs will stop.
Homeful Project – We support people who are homeless and have Mental Health problems.
The Media Project – We make films to spread awareness about Mental Health. Last year we made a film ‘I Am a Survivor Get Me Out of Here’ about 5 Survivors and how their problems started in childhood and how they recovered. It cost £12,000 to make had 24 actors from ages 5 – 48years old and 4 of the Survivors were ‘Talking Heads’ in the film.
VOLUNTEERS AND THEIR SKILLS, EXPERIENCE AND HOW VOLUNTEERS ARE MANAGED FOR THE PROJECT.
We have 4 volunteers that are on Placement from local Universities. They are studying Psychology, Youth Work and Health and Social Care. The Year 2 Undergraduates come in quite casually and help with visiting the clients that have or are in the process of obtaining Personal Budgets. The Year 3 Undergraduates have responsibility for running parts of the project. For example we have a Year 3 Undergraduate, Sarah Allen, doing Youth Work and she organizes the young people under 25 who come in to the studio or being visited at home. We have weekly Supervision Sessions with Sarah and encourage her to apply for funding, do fundraising and work in the studio with staff. She supervises the year 2 students. Sarah is staying for three months and does 18 hours per week.
We have 3 Volunteers that have Learning Difficulties. They have been with us for over 2 years. Ryan Abbott has a Physics degree and has IT Technician skills; Jai Khemlani has level 3 Accounts and is training to be an accountant. On Friday, 13 April Ryan and Jai were given paid employment with us as IT Co-Ordinator and Finance Administrator. We secured the funding from REMPLOY for 6 months. They will be doing 16 hours a week paid work but will continue to attend the Training and Therapy Sessions as volunteers. One of the volunteers, Vicky Gordon, has more severe Special Needs and needs individual support to fulfil her potential in the studio. The funding from the Health Lotteries will help to pay the Administrator to give her added support to learn the skills necessary to be a valued volunteer able to answer the phone, check emails, write letters and support others. This volunteer is already talented at Fundraising and won RECOVERY’s Top Fundraising Volunteer for 2 years running.
We have a Survivor Volunteer, Shirley Fifield, who has worked with the charity on and off for the past 6 years. She is a trained nurse but has been out of work for the last 6 years. She would like to help with the RICAP Project visiting people in their own homes but finds it challenging on some days to get out the house herself. She comes in regularly to the ‘Employment for Survivors’ and will complete at least 80% of the course. She is coming on holiday with us on April 30 – 4 May in a cottage by the sea. Sometimes she enjoys the Art Therapy and is interested in doing some Art Psychotherapy with James Lapworth, RECOVERY is a registered Art Psychotherapy Centre.
Another Survivor Volunteer is Maia Okzie she has worked with us for over 5 years. The charity paid for her Beauty Therapy course and she paid us back by helping us raise the funds with a sponsored walk. She is willing to help clients with relaxing facials, Hot Stone Massage, Aromatherapy and Swedish Massage. She enjoys the Employment for Survivors Course and wants to start her own business specifically helping Survivors to recover with Complementary and Alternative Remedies and Therapies (CARAT).
The staff who supervise the volunteers are Liz Maitland – Project Leader, Fathia Ishmail – RECOVERY Leader, Joe Maitland – Communications Co-Ordinator, Taz Sheikh – Administration Assistant. The volunteers fill in a Membership form and a Role Description of their duties. They come to 5 inductions on a Thursday to find the project they want to work with. They can choose between:
The Beatitude Youth Project, RICAP Project, Fundraising, The Media Project and The PAWS (Pets As Wellbeing Support) Project.
They are given regular one-to-one Pastoral Support and Supervision Meetings. They are given the opportunity, after three months, of becoming a Trustee and coming to the monthly Management Meeting.
