Onsides'Christmas Tree sparkles in the Cathedral

Onside invites you to visit Worcester Cathedrals first Christmas Tree Festival where 44 christmas trees are twinkling around the cloisters.

Onside has a tree decorated in a sparkling and calm theme. We think it looks beautiful. Amongst the decorations you can read hand written notes of how Onside has improved the quality of individuals lives across Worcestershire.

Thank you to Onside Lifelinks ; Ted, Brenda and Amanda who with Caroline helped decorate the tree.

Our tree marks the start of Christmas and a special appeal to raise funds to help Onside support isolated elderly people across Worcestershire. With more support we can fund visits and training of volunteers, helping us deliver friendship in 2012.

 A visit from Onside costs £20. Please give what you can using our “Just Giving” a donation is just a few clicks away. Thank you

 Meet Grace*

Aged 88, last Christmas she sat alone in silence. Lonely and isolated after suffering a stroke, having difficulties with her sight and speech she faced a life of emptiness. Her confidence had gone, unable to leave her home, anxious and alone.

The opposite of how Grace was before ‘I was a chatterbox and loved to meet people’ Grace missed the person she used to be. When we met Grace, we matched her with a volunteer who visited her in her home, listened and helped. Slowly over time Grace was able to leave her home, go for coffee and lunch with her volunteer. Now a year later the difference is remarkable.  This Christmas Grace has met new friends; she can look forward to laughter and company on Christmas Day. Grace can face 2012 with a smile.

 Help us support more people like Grace this Christmas

In the last year Onside has supported approximately 389 Service Users with Mental Health Issues.  Onside will be celebrating World Mental Health Week, each day you can read a case study from someone we have supported.

IMHA (Independent Mental Health Advocate) Case Study

Miss F was referred by ward staff for IMHA support. She had been detained under Section 2 of the Mental Health Act.

When I first met her she was frightened and unsure about why she had been detained. I supported her at ward review to ask this question and she was told that there had been concerns in the community about her behaviour and her mental well-being. Although she disagreed with this she was reassured when I told her, as an independent person, that the process had been legal and that she was being held under an assessment section.

Miss F signed the IMHA consent form giving me permission to speak to professionals about her situation and I was made aware that she had a long history of mental ill health that was receptive to medication. Relapses occurred when she failed to take medication.

Miss F told me that she was unhappy with some of the side-effects of her medication but felt that doctors wouldn’t listen to this.  In ward review I supported her to talk about this and her Responsible Clinician listened and suggested a change to her medication to reduce the side-effects. Miss F felt more respected as a result of her concerns being taken seriously.

At regular meetings this patient became increasingly more confident as she felt more in control of her situation. We discussed the importance of taking medication and the fact that she would need to be monitored for a time on the new medication before she could be allowed home. As a result of there being a “plan”, and having an independent person to support her with her concerns, she became less anxious and more relaxed about her time on the ward. She was allowed Section 17 leave and resumed some normal activities outside of the hospital whilst on leave.

I prepared Miss F for the likelihood that once her section 2 expired she would be put on a Section 3 but reassured her that this did not have to run its full course and could be lifted at any time by the psychiatrist. As a result she remained calm when this duly happened as she understood the reasons for this.

I feel that my involvement with this patient, who was subsequently allowed home, enabled her to remain in control and informed about her illness as well as giving her an element of choice within this distressing situation.  

World Mental Health Week Case Studies

'I was enjoying myself so much I hadn’t realised I felt so positive' read Robert's Story.pdf

'All in all my life seems to have turned a corner' read Ian's Story.pdf

'The improvement in my quality of life equates to a jackpot win' read Heather's Story.pdf

The Onside LifeLinks Gardening group meets once a month at Witley Court where they engage in a variety of tasks around the estate. The members are young adults with learning disabilities and as well as the social aspect of meeting in these beautiful surroundings they make a valued and important contribution to the upkeep of the grounds.

In the past, they have created willow sculptures, a bug museum in the wildlife garden and helped make garden benches but due to recent funding cuts, and in particular English Heritage’s decision to disband its Outreach Team, Onside has been looking at creative ways of raising funds to continue the work there. Recently, the East Parterre in front of the famous fountain was restored to its former glory and this involved the removal of hundreds of lavender plants; another user group with learning difficulties (Taskforce) helped the head gardener, Richard Squires, to remove the plants and some of these were re-planted in the Beacon Garden in Malvern and the others given to St. George’s Catholic Primary School in Worcester to sell to raise funds.

£194 has been raised and the school have kindly split the profits with the Witley Court Gardening Group. Onside took receipt of £100 a few days ago and group members Kate Brackley and Tamsin Shaw wrote a letter to thank the school headmaster, Mr Painter.

In the near future we hope to do a similar exercise with hundreds of tulip bulbs which will benefit the school and Gardening group further. Our share of the funds will go towards bringing in expertise to engage with the group to further develop life skills. 

Some 30 people gathered at Onside’s new Droitwich office this morning to mark its opening and the beginning of a new era in the growth of the charity. Trustees, volunteers, service users, staff and local supporters were able to wander around our newly-acquired space, meet colleagues and hear a first hand account from one of our service users, Una Dunnett, about her transforming experience of using Onside’s advocacy and befriending services.

While the charity’s HQ will remain its city centre offices in Worcester, both service users and staff based in the north of the county will be able to access the Droitwich office for meetings and work space, reducing travel times and dedicating more hours to support and the individuals in need.

Kate Harvey, Onside’s Chief Executive, commented: “We are thrilled to be opening a new office in the Wychavon district. It has been a long term aim of Onside to make our valuable services more accessible to the residents of towns like Bromsgrove and Redditch in the north of the county, while improving our visibility in Droitwich, Evesham and Pershore and the many rural areas in between. This is a significant commitment and investment for our organization but a vital step in ensuring that our services are as widely available as possible to people who face disadvantage. In a difficult economic climate and increasingly complex world it becomes even more important to provide support to those people who may be particularly vulnerable.” 

l-r: Kate Harvey,Chief Executive, Una Dunnett and Lesley McKay, Operations Manager

Last week, members of Onside’s new ConnectED team – which supports people in Worcestershire with Young Onset Dementia – visited the Morgan Motor Company Visitor centre in Malvern. A group of 7 service users and 8 carers plus their ConnectED contacts at Onside spent several hours at the world famous site for a guided tour and to visit the museum.

The ConnectED service is primarily offered on a 1-to-1 basis but from time to time service users and their carers are given the opportunity to join trips and outings to share experiences with other recipients of Onside’s work.

The visit was rounded off by a picnic and plenty of talk about favourite Morgan models!