Social Inclusion
Promoting inclusion, rebuilding confidence
The Creative Communities Group UK, which ‘aims to empower people, locally, nationally, and internationally, for positive change through volunteering and community engagement’, and whose members include people with lived experience of mental ill health, has won praise from the Department of Health’s chief social worker for adults, Lyn Romeo, while a service-user says the Group has ‘helped her tremendously’ on her journey to recovery. The Network reports.
CCGUK, which seeks to promote social inclusion for people with mental health issues, is chaired by Design in Mental Health Network Board Member, Russell Hogarth. A community engagement ambassador at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN), he was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by UCLAN in 2012 in recognition of his voluntary and community work with a special emphasis on his services to mental health, and has, for some time, had a special interest in the use of narrative, media, and creative teaching techniques as a pathway to inclusion and accessible education.
CONTRIBUTION PRAISED In a letter dated 1 October 2014 to Russell Hogarth, the DH’s Lyn Romeo – with whom members of the CCGUK had met at the House of Commons earlier in the year – wrote: “The contribution your community group makes in
putting service-user involvement at the heart of educating and training social workers is resulting in students making a step-change in understanding and applying person-centered and user-led collaborative approaches to improving experiences of health and social care and improving outcomes. Equally importantly, involvement in this work ensures that the assets and strengths of service-users make a significant contribution to improving social work education. Also, it results in positive changes for people like yourselves, with improved confidence and self-esteem resulting from volunteering and engagement work. “Social work is very privileged to benefit
so positively from your lived experiences, and I want to express my gratitude and thanks for all you are doing. I wish the Creative Communities Group UK continued success in the future.”
LIVED EXPERIENCE OF MENTAL HEALTH Russell Hogarth says: “The Creative Communities Group UK (CCGUK) that I chair consists of a number of community members with lived experience of mental ill health. Many have now turned their lives around, and become both socially included and enjoyed success, either in the community, or the workplace. A number of the members now deliver a workshop to university students and at conferences titled Towards a Better Tomorrow, which takes the students (or conference delegates) on a journey through life based on their personal lived experience of mental illness. It highlights the ups and downs and setbacks on the road to recovery using a variety of creative teaching styles, including media, narratives, DVD, ‘YouTube’, and role play.
‘RARELY HEARD ABOUT’ SUCCESS STORIES “The final outcome of the presentation is Towards a better Tomorrow – highlighting success stories as a result of good mental health treatment and recovery, something we sadly never read or hear about. We have been delivering this highly evaluated workshop in a number of leading universities and at various conferences, including at the College of Social Work in London at the annual Approved Mental Health Practitioners’ conference.” It was at a meeting last year at the House of
Commons with Minister of State for Care and Support, Norman Lamb MP, to launch The Role of the Social worker in Adult Mental Health Services, that Russell Hogarth and several colleagues met with Lyn Romeo, the chief social worker for adults at the Department of Health. He explains: “Lyn Romeo was very approachable, and had a genuine passion and interest in the value of community involvement, and its benefits to both community members and the social workers of tomorrow. She also wanted to know more about the work of the Creative Communities Group UK, and the community workshop that we have designed and deliver called Towards a Better Tomorrow.
Pictured (left to right) during a meeting at the House of Commons are: the DH’s chief social worker for adults, Lyn Romeo, Dr Ruth Allen, chair of the Mental Health Faculty at The College of Social Work, and Annie Hudson, chief executive of the College.
12 THE NETWORK January 2015
‘The Creative Communities Group UK (CCGUK) that I chair consists of a number of community members with lived experience of mental ill health’
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