Mental Health Awareness Training

1. Mental Health Awareness Training Dave Sweeney Mental Health Promotion specialist St Helens PCT Phil Roberts and Tony Haselton 2003

3. Mental Health Awareness Training In Partnership with: • St Helens Primary Care Trust. • St Helens MIND. • Police Community Liaison. • Users of Mental Health Services. • St Helens Mental Health Forum

4. Group Rules • Respect opinions. • Let people have their say. • Respect confidentiality, anything personal discussed today, must stay within the group.

5. AIM To give a basic understanding of mental health and mental illness. Mental Health Awareness

6. Ice Breaker - Activity 1 What are your expectations of the day?

7. Learning Outcomes • Participants will have a basic understanding of mental health and mental illness. • To dispel some of the incorrect stereotypes that surround mental health and mental illness. • To be aware that mental health is something that affects all of us. • To explore our own attitudes and perceptions towards mental health and mental illness.

8. What is Mental Health? What keeps us Mentally Healthy?

9. Who is Affected by Mental Health? Mental health affects us all and it is important that we recognise our own vulnerabilities.

10. Activity 3 Statistically how many people will have a mental health problem in the course of a year?

11. Latest statistics state 1 in 4 people will have a mental health problem within the course of a year. • 65% of people with a mental health problem will have experienced some form of discrimination. • Almost 50% will have been abused or harassed in public. Mind Out for Mental Health, 2001

12. Society of Health Education and Promotion Specialists (SHEPS) • According to SHEPS a water tight definition of mental health is difficult because it is such a wide ranging concept. • Any definition would leave out some important issue.

13. SHEPS The list descriptions encompasses three main areas: • Needs • Skills • Feelings/belief

14. Attitudes • It’s easy to understand why many people with a history of mental health problems keep quiet about it.

15. Attitudes Continued • In a Survey by The Mental Health Foundation in 2000: • 42% of people with mental health problems didn’t tell members of their family. • 22% didn’t tell their partners. • 74% didn’t mention it on forms. • 19% didn’t even tell their GP.

16. Activity 4 - Stigma Video

17. Food for Thought! • If we don’t change the way we think, someday one of us maybe on the receiving end of this stigma.

18. Summary • Mental health affects us all regardless of age, gender and class. • It is as important to look after our mental health as much as our physical health. • It is normal to feel sad or down at times. • If things are getting difficult we must not bottle it in, we must seek support or help.

19. Mental illness • Mental illness is like any illness such as asthma, heart disease however mental illness affects the brain and mind rather than the body. • Range of disorders involving the brain, where there are varying degrees of impaired mental functioning.

20. Mental illnesses • Schizophrenia. • Bipolar Disorder or “Manic Depression”. • Severe Depression and Anxiety.

21. In your groups What does the term Schizophrenia mean to you?

22. Schizophrenia • Firstly and most importantly Schizophrenia is not a split personality. This idea that the behavior and personality of people with Schizophrenia swing dramatically between normal and dangerously disturbed, is not true.

23. Schizophrenia • It is a complex mental disorder, thought to be caused by an imbalance of chemicals in the brain. • May result in distorted thinking and behaviour,eg: hallucinations, delusions, social withdrawal.

24. Activity 4 Hearing Voices

25. Schizophrenia • How many people are affected? • One in a 100 people develops schizophrenia at some time in their life. • However with support and treatment many people recover and lead normal everyday lives.

26. Schizophrenia • When does it develop?

27. Schizophrenia • What causes schizophrenia ?

28. Schizophrenia • What treatments are available?

29. Summary of Schizophrenia • Is not a split personality. • To have schizophrenia does not make you dangerous. • With treatment and support people with schizophrenia lead very normal lives.

30. Activity 5 How can I help?

31. Bipolar Disorder • This illness is more commonly known as Manic Depression.

32. Activity 6 What is Bipolar/Manic Depression? Discuss in groups

33. Who is Affected with Bipolar? • Anybody can suffer from bipolar disorder. • Men suffer as often as women and people of higher social class, as often as people of lower social class. • It is estimated that 1% of the population will suffer from bipolar disorder at some point in their lives. • Which means 700,000 people are suffering with this illness in Britain today.

34. What Causes it ? • Differences in people's genetic make up can make them more vulnerable to develop bipolar affective disorder. • Stressful events, illness or lack of support can trigger individual episodes of illness.

35. What is the Outlook? • Some people will have only one or two short episodes and then never be unwell again. • A very small proportion persistently experiences the symptoms of depression or mania or flit quickly from one extreme to the other. • The average is 9 episodes of mood disturbance over a lifetime.

36. Famous People who have or had Bipolar! • Charley Pride, Musician • Axl Rose, Guns “n” Roses • Connie Francis, Actress, Singer • Spike Milligan, Comic, Actor and Writer, Patron of the MFD • Peter Gabriel, Musician • Winston Churchill • Ronnie O’Sullivan, Snooker Player • Paul Merton, Comedian, TV Presenter

37. Paul Merton, 44, Comedian Most of all people shouldn’t feel ashamed for having a mental illness. We don’t feel ashamed for having a Summary broken leg, so why a mental illness?

38. Ronnie O’Sullivan, 26, Snooker Player People are quite ignorant about mental illness. They think “you moany old sod, why don’t you just cheer up.” Sometimes I think, "yes I am a moany old sod" and I play that character and get a sense of happiness out of it. The worst thing someone can say is “jack yourself out of it”; in the end I tell them “do you think I enjoy being like this”.

39. Summary of Bipolar • Sufferers may have elated manic periods, also low depressive periods. • With treatment and support these extremes can be stabilised. • Most people recover to lead very normal lives.

40. Depression • A term that is used incorrectly in modern language.

41. This is not Clinical Depression!

42. What is Depression?

43. Activity 6 Symptoms of Depression!

44. Words to Avoid! • “Snap out of it”. • “She is putting it on”. • “Pull yourself together”. • “Cheer up”. • “You’re bringing everyone down”. • “Don’t be so soft”.

45. Activity 7 What am I going to do now to improve my mental health and the mental health of others.

46. Final Thought! • For centuries people with mental health illness were kept away from the rest of society, sometimes locked up, often in poor conditions, with little or no say in running their lives. • Today, negative attitudes lock them out of society more subtly but just as effectively.

47. So Remember!