Life Links Celebrate World Mental Health Day 2018
On Wednesday 10 October, Life Links celebrated World Mental Health Day 2018. Throughout the week, we were out and about taking part in various events across the city and county. Here’s a run-down of what we got up to:
Sangam Women’s Group
On 8 October, staff from Life Links delivered a workshop to Ladies’ Sangam Group in Oadby and Wigston. The workshop aimed to highlight the importance of maintaining our wellbeing, to help prevent mental ill health. This was well received by the women, who were enthusiastic about this topic and offered many different examples of how they actively maintain their own personal wellbeing. We also performed a muscle relaxation exercise to illustrate the importance of relaxation techniques in helping to regulate our feelings of tension.
It was a pleasure to present to the Sangam Women’s Group – they were all extremely welcoming and had lots of great ideas. Thank you for having us Ladies!
The Ladies Sangam Group provides a variety of activities, including exercise, health, arts and crafts and outings. The sessions currently take place every Monday from 11am to 1pm at Zeff’s Café. You can call Tasleem Malick on 07941055167 for more details.
West Indian Senior Citizen’s Project
A few days later, Life Links held an information stall at West Indian Senior Citizen’s Project’s (WISCP) open day on 10 October. This gave us the opportunity to meet people from the Black Caribbean community and share information about our services here at Life Links.
Amelia from Life Links praised WISCP’s work and expressed her enjoyment of the day:
“We are really grateful to WISCP for inviting us to their open day. It was great to see their facilities and learn about some of the brilliant work they do to help prevent isolation and loneliness in Leicester City. We were lucky enough to take part in some of their activities, including a talk from a PHD student from the University of Leicester about blood pressure and strokes. Thank you to WISCP for giving us the opportunity to talk to their service users about mental health support in Leicester.”
WISCP provide a wide range of services for older people from the Black Caribbean community and their carers. If you are interested in learning more about their service, you can take a look at their website.
Bradgate unit’s involvement centre
Meanwhile on 11 October, we took a visit to the involvement centre at the Bradgate mental health unit to promote our service and offer our support.
The Involvement Centre is an IT and social resource which is open to patients, services users, carers, family, friends and staff. Upon entering the centre, we immediately noticed the relaxed and calming atmosphere and it was great to meet some of the staff and volunteers, who welcomed us and helped us to set up our stand.
Throughout the day we spoke to a number of people about Life Links and the support we offer and many took leaflets away with them. Our selection of promotional materials was also a great success with service users and staff alike, with many taking away stress balls, pens and key rings.
Thank you to the involvement centre for having us, we thoroughly enjoyed the day and we look forward to coming back soon to offer our advice and support.
Leicestershire Centre for Integrated Living (LCIL)
Finishing up the week, we attended an event at the Leicestershire Centre for Integrated Living (LCIL) on 12 October.
We set up a pop up stall in the main hall, where attendees came along and spoke to us about our service, including volunteering opportunities and how to get involved. We were then treated to a tasty lunch provided by the Junk Food Café, a local initiative run by LCIL where donated surplus food (usually destined for landfill) is used to create delicious meals. This was a great opportunity for us to engage with people we support, as well as other agencies in the area.
LCIL is a user led organisation that works to support and empower disabled people so that they have choice and control for independent living. Their work is underpinned by the social model of disability and they actively promote equality of opportunity for all. You can find out more by visiting their website.
