OXFORDSHIRE
MENTAL HEALTH MATTERS
Oxfordshire Mental Health Matters is an organisation committed to providing
comprehensive information and services on a variety of mental health
issues to all members of the public, as well as to service users, mental
health professionals and carers. We aim to ensure that our services
are accessible to all, whatever their social or cultural background
and we support other organisations, groups and individuals working towards
similar aims.
As well as an Information Service, we provide other services which
aim to empower individuals to deal with issues arising from their mental
health, or to deal with those experiencing mental distress. Allies Advocacy
is a service which supports in-patients on psychiatric wards in Oxfordshire
and we are currently running a pilot scheme for Independent Complaints
Advocacy, that extends this service out into the community. Our Training
Service runs various low-cost (or free) training workshops on a variety
of mental health issues, as well as our own training programme for people
wishing to volunteer in our Information and Advocacy services.
Our Information Service is run by two Information Co-ordinators, both
with a special remit for working with particular sections of the community
for whom mental health services are less accessible for a variety of
reasons. Their aim is to identify the obstacles that prevent awareness
of and access to mental health services and work to overcome them. One
Information Co-ordinator has a special responsibility for rural communities
and the other is responsible for Black and Minority Ethnic Issues. Both
Co-ordinators host workshops and training programmes to educate others
working within these particular communities, as well as attend various
conferences to learn more about the problems affecting access to services.
Research has shown that black and minority ethnic communities lack
confidence in mental health services and feel that they are neither
welcoming nor culturally sensitive to their particular needs. To overcome
this, we are currently running a Bilingual Information Workers Scheme
- an innovative project, unique in Oxfordshire, that aims to provide
information to the black and minority ethnic communities in languages
other than English. Trained volunteers spend half their time based at
external organisations that specifically cater for ethnic minority communities
and the other half of the time at OMHM. The aim is to provide our services
in a culturally sensitive manner so as to restore the confidence of
these communities in mental health services and to forge links within
these communities.
One of our Bilingual Information Workers is currently working with
asylum seekers at Asylum Welcome, a charity set up to provide support
for asylum seekers in the Oxford Area. This worker provides support
and information in Albanian and is doing invaluable work by making our
services more accessible to those who are particularly vulnerable and
less aware of what help is available to them. We are hoping to extend
this service, by placing workers who speak other languages in similar
host bases to consolidate our links with other ethnic groups.
We are always interested in recruiting and training new volunteers,
whatever their background, and anyone who is interested in training
as a volunteer in any of the areas of service we provide should contact
OMHM for details. We aim to provide a service that is as diverse as
the community it serves and welcome anyone who wishes to
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