To mark World Suicide Prevention Day, our Touchstone colleague Laura has shared some key information on suicide in West Yorkshire and how to get support for anyone struggling with their mental health. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) data shows that suicide is more common in West Yorkshire than in England as a whole: 235 deaths registered by coroners as suicides in West Yorkshire in 2020, with an average of
Lucy, a support worker in our Self Directed Support Service, has written a day in the life of an SDS worker to give you a flavour of the work they do with clients... Except this was no ordinary day… I have 3 clients booked in on this bright, sunny Wednesday. Meeting with my first client My first stop is with H, a gentle and often worried client who needs
For World Alzheimer's Month, Touchstone's Co-production Lead for the Complex Rehabilitation Project, Tristan, has written a moving piece on his relationship with his Dad, who is living with dementia. My Dad has Dementia. He was about 53 years old when he was diagnosed, I was devastated. I felt like my world was ending, when in fact it was just changing. Drastically changing, but not ending. I was around 22,
Today is Grief Awareness Day, a day mostly marked in the US but recognised and observed by some in the UK and elsewhere too. Quenby, Community Health Development Analyst at Mentally Healthy Leeds, has taken this opportunity to raise awareness around the complexity of grief and the need to make room for this in person-centred care. I’ve been thinking a lot about grief over the past year. I’ve spent
Our new Coproduction and Service User Involvement lead, Scotty, has written this blog on the power of power and the need to change unequal power dynamics in our organisations: It is very easy when working with Coproduction to go onto autopilot and become an evangelist under the pretext that everybody should understand your ethos and work this way. I forget that there is also a journey to get to a
On Monday 8th August, Touchstone’s BME Dementia Service featured on ITV calendar news to call for more funding for BME-specific support and care for those living with dementia. Here is a summary of the report, with the full link below: The segment includes clips from the service’s weekly Hamari Yaadain (Our Memories) support cafes for South Asian people living with dementia. The café runs in five South Asian languages,
To mark World Breastfeeding Week, Jayne, from Touchstone’s My Plan Perinatal Mental Health service, has put together some information on breast and chest feeding* and perinatal mental health. 20% of women are affected by mental illness either during pregnancy or in the 12 months after giving birth, which is known as the perinatal period. Many trans and non-binary parents, who may not identify as women, also report mental health
July was Disability Pride Month. As July comes to an end and we enter August, some of Touchstone's staff and volunteers have shared their personal thoughts and experiences to raise awareness around non-visible disabilities and how others can offer better support. Before reading on, please note the following on the use of language within this blog: The phrase ‘non-visible disabilities’ is preferred by some people with disabilities that are not
This Love Parks Week 2022, the Coordinator of our Perinatal Mental Health Peer Supporter Alliance, Clare, has shared her thoughts on the importance of parks to parents' mental health. She has also co-ordinated some key info of park-based projects parents can get involved with across West Yorkshire: My daughter was born in early January. It was cold and dark. January often feels like a month with no hope –
Following Co-production Week, Scotty Bell, our new CoProduction and Service User Involvement Coordinator, has written about his role at Touchstone. It doesn’t seem that long ago I was typing away to introduce myself and my role at the last organization I worked at. But sometimes an opportunity comes up that matches your beliefs so much that I had to say, “How could I not want this opportunity?” So here I