CORPORATE BLOG

Coasters is part of OBMH, and provides sporting and challenging activity for those who use our mental health services.  Helping people participate in a wide range of activities relies on available transport, but the ancient Coasters minibus is long overdue for retirement.  Our aim is to raise £20,000 to replace it with an up-to-date minibus which will get the players to and from events, matches and tournaments, including our regular evening sports sessions in Oxfordshire.   Founded in 1995, Coasters celebrates its 15^th anniversary in 2010. 

We aim to facilitate involvement in sport for people who are recovering from mental illness, and to promote social inclusion.   Good mental health benefits from good physical health, and Coasters supports people in a wide range of activities, from long distance walking (the name arises from the Annual  coast-to-coast long distance walk), including football, badminton, squash, basketball, rock-climbing and mountain biking. Coasters have taken part in international tournaments as well as in the UK.

Please donate, as every little helps. You will be helping people to recover their health and fitness, build new friendships, gain fulfilment from the experience of participating in a team, and take part in sport. http://www.justgiving.com/coastersminibus

If you have any suggestions about how we can raise funds or raise the profile of this good cause please let me know.

This week is Depression Awareness Week. You can find out more about it by visiting the Depression Alliance website.

The Trust provides psychological therapies in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire for people with a range of issues including mild to moderate depression. You can access TalkingSpace, the service in Oxfordshire via your GP. In Buckinghamshire you can access Healthy Minds via your GP or self referral. Information about both services is on our website, click here to view.

On April 1^st we were pleased to welcome all of our new CAMHS staff. The new staff will be providing community and inpatient Child and Adolescent Mental Health services (CAMHS) across Wiltshire, Bath & North East Somerset (B&NES).

In addition to the inpatient services at Marlborough House (Swindon) the CAMHS services that OBMH will be delivering include five Community CAMHS teams at Swindon, Marlborough, Melksham, Salisbury and Keynsham, and three Assertive Outreach Teams at Swindon, Melksham and Keynsham.

We will also be delivering mental health services for children with learning disabilities in partnership with the Ridgeway Partnership (Oxfordshire Learning Disability NHS Trust).

We hope to hold a networking event this year, which will give you all an opportunity to meet one another and find out more about the new services.

 It has been a huge project and a big change for all of the new staff. We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for all of your support through this time and of course to welcome you once more.

 For more information on the new service, please contact the staff at Boundary Brook House 0845 219 1439.

As of today Healthy Minds, the Buckinghamshire Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) service will be joining OBMH. We would like to welcome all Healthy Minds staff and service users.

Healthy Minds offers services to adults of all ages across Buckinghamshire who are registered with  a GP and may be experiencing common mental health problems.  Healthy Minds also offers a specialist employment service for people who are employed but struggling with stress, anxiety or depression. This part of the service is provided by Richmond Fellowship, a mental health organisation, in partnership with the clinical team.

If you would like more information about Healthy Minds you can speak to your GP or alternatively you can call Healthy Minds on 0844 225 2400 or visit www.healthymindsbucks.nhs.uk

 If you have experience of the Healthy Minds service or any other IAPT service that you would like to share, please do so. We are keen to hear about people’s experiences.

We have 5,340 members who are represented by 31 Governors who make up our Members’ Council. They have a range of responsibilities including representing members and feeding their views back to our Board of Directors. In the last year, our Governors have appointed a Non-Executive Director (Mike Bellamy) and have also appointed our new Chairman (Martin Howell) who will take up his new post in April 2010.

If you are a member of OBMH please let us know how you would like to interact with your Governors in the future. Follow this link to find out who your Governors are http://www.obmh.nhs.uk/?page_id=688

Do you have any ideas about how you would like us to engage with you as a member? If you are reading this and you are not a member of our Trust are there any reasons why. We would like to know what the barriers are for people so we can try to address them.