Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
1989 -2019
Manchester Mind: A History In Objects A collection of objects and their stories selected by the staff of Manchester Mind to mark their 30th Anniversary
Hello and Welcome
Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
Hello and Welcome
Against the backdrop of Thatcher’s Britain, as the 1980s were drawing to a close and the ‘Madchester’ scene was taking off, in Manchester’s deprived inner city area of Hulme, a group of like-minded individuals including local church clergy, elders, community workers and local activists came together. Their mission? To tackle the underlying factors that were impacting on local people’s mental health. This is how Hulme Action Research Project (HARP) was established. Thirty years later the values that initiated this work, and the personcentred approach that was adopted, continue to be the driving force for a team of 60-plus staff who now operate as Manchester Mind. Still mostly based in Hulme, this independent charity now provides mental health support for over 6500 people per year, across the whole city region. To mark the occasion of this key milestone staff were invited to contribute an object to an exhibition at the 30th Anniversary event on 19 September 2019. With each object there was a story about mental health. Some of the objects are drawn from professional experiences of working within mental health, while others are more personal. The stories resonate far beyond the words that accompany them. They present a thought-provoking collection that is so powerful that we had to capture it beyond the anniversary event and preserve it for the future. The collection is testimony to the great achievements made by HARP and Manchester Mind over the last 30 years, alongside the ambitions and optimism the team hold for the future.
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Object 1
My Dad’s Hat (pictured overleaf)
He is the reason I do this job. He had quite extreme mental health conditions throughout his life- when he was younger he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and as he got older it became bipolar disorder. They basically couldn’t put him in a box. He had wild episodes of mania that would last months and periods of depression that lasted years. The doctors said they hadn’t seen such an extreme case. In the 70s he had electric shock treatment which he was still very angry about in his 60s. He would get the train to London to talk to the Prime Minister and give away his jumper and guitar to homeless people on the way. He would burgle our house and give away the stuff to new families on the street. Once he ran away and lived at Piccadilly Station for a couple of weeks and wrote me poems every day and left the last line free so I could finish it off (I could never find the words). When he was in hospital he thought he was Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, playing a game, like he wanted to be there. He looked just like him too. The staff and patients loved him; he was very charismatic. [continued overleaf]
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A History of Manchester In 30 Objects
This is my Dad’s cricket hat. He wore it all the time, even though he never went outside and he hadn’t played cricket for 15 years. It really suited him.
Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
Object 1
When my parents split up he got a council flat and some benefits and he stayed active in his local community, ferrying kids to the seaside for Bolton Community Transport and being a care worker. His law degree hung up in the bathroom, never used. He had an episode in 2000 that he never really recovered from, and then he didn’t really leave his flat for 15 years. He became the roots of our family tree, like an Ent from Lord of the Rings. He died 5 years ago. My Dad had a huge loving family that were able to care for him. He was allowed to take time out from life to be poorly then get stuck back in, being a valued member of his community and family. He was afforded this life because of things like the welfare benefits system, social housing, mental health care and all those things that keep a person going. And that’s why I like to help people do these things.
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Object 1
Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
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Object 2
Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
Laptop
This laptop has been at my side since 2015 when I started working for Manchester Mind. Most of all I connect it with Harpurhey where I started to build one of our first Peer Support groups. It reminds me of the office, where I moved from one desk to the next as it was always busy, and it reminds me of the chats with all the people temporarily based in that office. I can still see myself sitting with my volunteers before and after the group sessions or when a member would come to me for support when in crisis. With this laptop I showed my group the photos of the Peerfest 2016, where a volunteer and a group member gave a presentation in London and we were all so proud of them. Nevertheless, like with all things this laptop also symbolised the many, different, and difficult challenges I found in Harpurhey. For example, the laptop’s speed, its constant struggle to start up or shut down, mirrors the difficulties of finding a foothold in Harpurhey and to get our projects running. It was difficult and not everything worked out, but Rome wasn’t built in a day. I feel we did make a difference, it may have taken time, and may have been a bumpy ride, but this laptop is still at my side today.
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Object 2
Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
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Object 3
Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
Say Hello, Wave Goodbye
We did wave goodbye to HARP, well, at least the name in 2011 as we affiliated with trepidation and excitement to National Mind and the federated network, becoming one of over 250 local Minds. There was some nervousness about what we would lose and whether local people would still recognise the organisation they had been using for the previous 22 years. We were worried that our local connections would be jeopardised and that we may be seen as a much bigger charity. On the plus side we were excited about the connections and learning we could have by being within the federated network, and having the support of the national charity and of course taking on the brand, which was recognised nationally as a leader in mental health. Looking back I feel certain that we have gained massively through this move. We are reaching more people than ever before, we are able to share with colleagues all over the country and are helping shape the Mind strategy. The brand has made us more recognisable and helped us with fundraising, which we have seen as essential in order for us to maintain the services we see as important. The services that HARP delivered are still being delivered by Manchester Mind and are arguably stronger with this connection. There is no doubt though that 2011 was a big year for HARP and Manchester Mind.
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Object 3
Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
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Object 4
Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
Hulme Sweet Hulme
The project to produce this quilt came about through an initiative at Manchester Metropolitan University where Lynn Setterington (now Dr Setterington) worked in textiles and quiltmaking. Lynn’s theme was maps and for our group of people using HARP services and volunteering, this focused on Hulme – but in its widest sense, recognising that although people may live in Hulme now, they might have started off in all sorts of different places, not just in Britain but around the world. It recognises the diversity of our communities and the impact of belonging and being part of something. One of our values is about belonging – developing kind relationships that lead to feeling accepted, understood and able to contribute. Even back in 2008 this was recognisable in all areas of our work and visualised in this magnificent quilt.
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Object 4
Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
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Object 5
Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
Mindfulness Handbook
The eight-week Mindfulness course was my first experience of a Manchester Mind service. This course had a real impact on me. It is the first time that I understood that ‘thoughts are not facts’. It felt like a breakthrough moment, recognising that my thought cycle had some power over me and how I was feeling. This realisation has made a huge difference to my day-to-day life. I can now recognise when negative thoughts are descending and sometimes I can even choose to let them pass on rather than get trapped within them. I have chosen page 44 from the course handbook as this page introduces the idea of taking care of ourselves. I observed how difficult it was for people attending the course to make time for themselves and their own wellbeing and how much of a positive impact it had on people to be encouraged to look after themselves, and be a bit kinder to themselves. The poem ‘Perfection Will Be Built’ encouraged me to accept that ‘the ducks will never be in a row’. As a result of attending this course, I am now more accepting of the fact that life is unpredictable and, it is the nature of ducks to fly about.
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Object 5
Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
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Object 6
Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
Mancunian Mug
On my first day at Manchester Mind, this mug was waiting for me at my new desk, bequeathed to me by my supervisor. To me, this mug represents Manchester Mind’s core value of belonging; developing kind relationships that lead to feeling accepted, understood and able to contribute. The first day at a new job can be fraught with worries; Will I fit in here? Where am I going? What if it is not as I expected? I had relocated to a new city for a job in a new sector, I didn’t really feel like I belonged anywhere. I still didn’t know how to get around the City without relying on google maps, yet, here was this mug calling me a Mancunian. Our sense of identity is so important to our mental health, feeling that we are welcome, that we are valued and that we have a place and a purpose. This mug is also a reminder that it can be the smallest gestures that can make the biggest difference to how someone is feeling and, can turn a difficult day into a good day; it is the abiding memory of my first day at Manchester Mind.
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Object 6
Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
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Object 7
Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
Signing In Sheet
My object is the signing in sheet from my group supervision at the Zion centre; it shows mine and my colleagues signatures over the previous months. I work for Big Manchester based in Cheetham Hill and group supervision is one of the few opportunities I have to meet colleagues from other Manchester Mind services. Attending this definitely makes me feel more connected to the organisation. During supervision we discuss issues of deep concern to us and that frequently impact on our own and other people’s mental health. Though the group is work related frequently issues have connections to other aspects of our lives and we openly and safely discuss these. From these discussions I’ve received support and guidance and gained insight from listening to my colleagues. I often find myself looking at the signatures on the signing in sheet when I am talking about or listening to difficult things. The sheet and signatures signify commitment, trust, safety, unconditional positive regard and I feel reassured by looking at it. I value the relationships this supervision has enabled me to create, the support given from within the group, the overall guidance from our supervisor and also that I work for an organisation that prioritises opportunity for staff to reflect and take the time to discuss mental health.
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Object 7
Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
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Object 8
Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
Meditation Bells
The first object that came to mind would be my meditation bells. Before I started working here, I was half-way to becoming a mindfulness meditation trainer, which was put on hold when I got the job here at Manchester Mind. Gradually, I began to weave a bit more mindfulness into the Building a Healthy Future course, and then completed my mindfulness training so that now I deliver 8 week Mindfulness courses as well as the six week Building a Healthy Future courses. I use the bells to let people know that a meditation is at an end, but also as ‘crowd control’ in workshops and courses, to let people know to come back after small group conversations. So, when I see the bells, I see two different things: the peacefulness that I experience when leading a meditation for a group who are receiving the meditation in silence; and the noise of group, happily chatting away, creating noise and energy while offering and receiving support, or working together on an activity. The bells are a way to bring everything and everyone together. When I see the bells, I see silence and noise, calmness and energy, and most importantly, community and connections.
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Object 8
Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
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Object 9
Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
London Marathon Medal
As a child I learnt that mental and physical health were largely disconnected. Running the London Marathon, taught me how misplaced this message was… It’s fair to say, my marathon preparation didn’t go to plan. Then, on the day, things started well, but the heat quickly took its toll and at 11 miles, I collapsed. That was it, it was over - I wasn’t physically fit enough to finish. Fortunately, after 45 minutes being cared for by St John’s Ambulance, I not only recovered, but I found an immense amount of inner strength and determination to pick myself up and carry on. What changed? I remembered why I had started (I was running for mental health), which changed my mindset. During the first 11 miles I focused purely on the end goal, trying to get there as quickly as possible. After my collapse, I kept the finish line in sight, but focused on enjoying the journey, every little step, irrelevant of how fast or slow. With a strong mind and a body to support, I made it to mile 26.2, with a life lesson in tow - mental and physical health are deeply connected and when challenges are faced, everyone should have someone to turn to for support. This is exactly why I applied to be a trustee at Manchester Mind; everyone deserves to be supported in their mental health needs and each and every one of us, has a part to play in that.
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Object 9
Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
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Object 10
Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
Ornament
This ornament represents the journey made by many of Manchester Mind’s clients from Kenya and Africa, before they reached the shores of Manchester Mind. I have had several clients who themselves or family have originated from Kenya. Indeed there are many connections between Manchester and Kenya, with political leaders having been educated at Manchester University to then return to Africa. Some clients with mental health issues have, with the support of Manchester Mind, been able to return home for a visit after many years of absence. This has enabled them to re-establish family ties, remember the reasons why they felt they had to leave and start a new life, thus giving them the motivation to move forward. Many of the families I have met from Kenya, had actually settled there after having migrated from Somalia, Yemen, and India, reminding me of the global world within which we all live. One family with whom I worked, had lost 3 brothers at sea in one incident, 30 years ago on the journey from Gujarat to Africa. Many people have come from war torn areas of the world to find peace and security. Their journeys have not been as they expected, and aspirations have grown or fallen. Manchester Mind with its values has offered people a sense of belonging and been able to step in and give support at crucial moments. This particular ornament was given to me and I will always remember the holiday photos of the person’s child, with expression of delight, on a pristine beach in Kenya.
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Object 11
Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
Crystal Owl
This crystal owl is nothing special to look at – it is one of perhaps millions produced as small ornaments, as gifts. It was given to me as a present – a thank you for support and advice to help sort out a claim for benefits. It was one of many small gifts over the years – chocolates, cards, flowers – the only surviving one. When I started working in mental health it was by accident, and I felt I knew nothing. I was on an inpatient unit surrounded by need and often distress and I didn’t have a clue. I guessed that listening, showing respect and building trust would be a good start and as it turned out it was and it worked. I learned a lot from the people who knew the most and we built mutual respect, which led to not only successful access to legal entitlements but also a sharing of knowledge. I learnt about the huge impact of the small stuff, the seemingly easy to do stuff but within a big system, it was the stuff that didn’t always happen – listening, being heard, consistency, trust. When I came to HARP – it was what I found – an insistence that we didn’t rush people through and there were opportunities to move at people’s pace. This owl to me represents that mutual appreciation – the power of acknowledgement, which was as important for me as it was to the people I was working with.
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Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
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Object 12
Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
Volunteer Thank You Card
To coincide with Volunteers’ Week, we sent this card to all of the dedicated people who volunteer across our services. It included an invitation to join staff and fellow volunteers for a day out at Lyme Park for a walk, games and a picnic. Designed by Emily, a member of the Food For All team, it captures all of the ways that volunteers contribute to Manchester Mind. This card represents how integral volunteers are to Manchester Mind. Our volunteers help us to run our services, support us to reach more people and they assist us in trying to improve what we are doing every day. It demonstrates the diversity of volunteer roles that have evolved over time at Manchester Mind. It depicts volunteers working together and captures the sense of community that volunteering can bring. The volunteers drawn on this card are all smiling. Volunteering can bring joy. It is a way to meet new people, to learn new skills and to feel part of something. Many of our volunteers have told us that volunteering has improved their own mental health. This card is a symbol of our gratitude for the contribution made by all of our volunteers and, is a reminder that we all have a part to play in supporting better mental health for everyone.
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Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
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Object 13
Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
Manchester Volunteer Advice Partnership (MVAP) This is the most recent evaluation of our MVAP project. It represents a visual representation of what has been an innovative and hugely beneficial partnership. MVAP came about as many of the best partnerships do through a real desire to do something different and through shared values. All the partners – ourselves, Cheetham Hill Advice Centre, Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit, Manchester Refugee Support Network and Centrepoint Manchester believed in the transformational power of information and advice. We all recognised a gap in working with volunteers around advice and combined our experiences and skills to develop a rich volunteering project. Volunteers were recruited and trained centrally then went to their preferred partner, where ongoing support was provided. The lottery funding has enabled the partners to work things out, to involve volunteers, to improve and develop. The stories held in this evaluation are so moving, all of them emphasise the value of the project not just in delivering amazing advice outcomes but it has been about developing communities and enabling people to feel part of their communities – these are powerful stories and ones that we are all immensely proud of. It is also a successful account of how much more we can do by working collaboratively and sharing our skills and talents.
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Object 13
Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
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Object 14
Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
Welfare Benefits and Tax Credits Handbook On my desk you’ll find the Child Poverty Action Group’s Welfare Benefits and Tax Credits Handbook (or ‘CPAG’ – pronounced ‘see-pag’ – for short). My copy is heavily thumbed, and littered with post-it notes and pens to mark pages. OK, I admit it: I’m something of a benefits nerd. I enjoy exploring CPAG’s pages to get my head round complex problems and finding solutions. Because social security law is so complex, you’re often jumping from section to section to get the full picture of a situation (sometimes ending up right back where you started!). But this is not a game. The lives of vulnerable people are shaped by the rules and procedures inside this book. Being found fit for work when your schizophrenia is still uncontrolled; living in fear of being ‘migrated’ onto Universal Credit when you know that you won’t be able to manage your claim online; trying to argue that the panic attack you had on the day of an assessment for Personal Independence Payment was a good reason for failing to attend. And every year the rules get more complex. The 1994 edition was 365 pages long: the 2019/20 edition is 1848 pages. In this book you can discover what makes many people’s lives so hard: our job is to use it to find ways to change that, if we can.
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Object 14
Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
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Object 15
Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
Paper Plane
In the seven years I’ve been a trustee (I started in September 2012!) the organisation has continued to reach for the sky, has grown and expanded, changing massively. The advice project is so much bigger, we’ve gone from no fundraising to over £200K last year, the food project has grown and moved in and out of the organisation (and back in again) and to new premises, we’ve expanded the counselling through our Children and Young People’s Services, grown the training offer plus all the work with Greater Manchester Mind. Manchester Mind has been resilient to changes (cuts) in the funding environment, gaps in funding and increasing austerity, but like a paper plane it has been swooshing up and down and around, refolding to make it stronger, better and able to go further!
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Object 15
Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
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Object 16
Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
Commemorative Plaque
Working for Assertive Outreach I became inspired by the engagement and support we were offering to a woman under our care. She had experienced great trauma in her life, which was little recognised by the psychiatrists involved at the time, something I have come to recognise is often the case in complex mental health care, within the medical model. Trauma often prevented her from communicating her needs and her case was seen as ‘difficult’ as she failed to engage in medical treatment. She was often hopeless and could see no end to her pain but our team continued to work creatively, listened and advocated for her. The plaque is one of a number she gave to our team as gifts. As she sadly died, this plaque now hangs in memoriam. With her passing, I felt that I realised the importance of what I do and why I do it. I look and remember how we fought for her brighter tomorrow. By striving for better treatment, hoping for recovery, asking people to listen and improve care we recognised her as a whole person. We were striving not only to support her, but to positively change mental health care in this country. I am proud to work for Manchester Mind and hold on to hope for people when they can’t feel it themselves. I am hopeful for social change and I am hopeful I will remain at the forefront of it.
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Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
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Object 17
Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
An Early Leaflet
The leaflet gives some indication that HARP in the early days was part of a collective of groups who came together to help people living in Hulme and Moss Side with their health and wellbeing. The language clearly indicates that The Zion Community Health and Resource Centre (CHRC), which was the umbrella name, was based on activism and involvement of the local community. It had a clear campaign to improve services for local people, working alongside and influencing statutory agencies. It gives a feeling of it being an early prototype of what developed later within the Zion Community Resource Centre building, which came about with the redevelopment of Hulme in the 1990’s. It is also good to see that there are a number of organisations still in existence from those times such as Afro-Caribbean Mental Health Project, Homestart, Manchester Action on Street Health (MASH), and Black HIV/AIDS Forum (BHAF), all providing much needed services still.
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Object 17
Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
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Object 18
Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
Bird Feeder
Even when I am at my lowest, watching the birds feeding from my kitchen window makes me feel better. The birds don’t know that it’s me who provides the food. They don’t know that they are birds and I am a human. Beneath their feathers there is almost nothing to them, and their lifetime is a fraction of mine. And yet they seem to embody life, and the joy of living. Manchester Mind is where I work. But the world isn’t divided into employees and service users; we’re all just vulnerable human beings, when all’s said and done. In my case, I’ve lived with anxiety and depression, on and off, for most of my adult life (and earlier!). My favourite birds are the goldfinches, who love the sunflower hearts I provide. They constantly seem to be communicating with each other, in a song one of my bird books describes as a ‘cheerful tinkling’. Their colours and their energy are infectious. And they provide continuity: although, I suppose, the individual birds die after a year or so, every year I see the same fluttering liveliness, like a stream where the water is changing but the trickling, twinkling, swirling experience goes on. These tiny scraps of life don’t know about death: they are just there, in the moment, enjoying the food I give them without asking why it’s there, or worrying when it might be gone. And, just for a moment, while I’m watching them, that’s where I am too.
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Object 18
Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
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Object 19
Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
Slinky
This, and objects like it (cubes, beads, wiggly plastic things etc etc) are scattered all over the Children and Young People’s Services office making desks look untidy, being shaped into interesting chaotic, or uniform, shapes (depending on the mindset of the staff member fiddling with them), getting broken under chairs and generally getting in the way. Since I started here I have always known they are intended as a small nod to accessibility; a little distraction to take focus away from disclosing something painful, to distract from an awkward silence or just something to soak up spare jitters to prevent them escaping through the mouth as a stutter or a wobbling lower lip. They get used a lot, and not just by the young people who use our service. Their ubiquity has led the staff team to pick them up too – clicking and twisting them in meetings, creating and destroying shapes at random to allow our brains to stay focused. Recently, this one got picked up and used as a metaphor in a mental health awareness session for the range, or maybe amplitude, of emotions we experience in a day, and how that differs in someone with anxiety. I realised that although their clicky, plasticky naffness irritates the hell out of me, I’d come to love these little springs and strings and wiggly things because of their significance as a symbol of our commitment to accessibility in our service and the comfort of our service users. They’re little, but they’re important, and I want this one back.
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Object 19
Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
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Object 20
Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
The Beetroot
It may look only like a beetroot (albeit a handsome one) but it symbolises so much more. This is some of the yield from our allotment this year. It’s organically grown, full of nutrients and has been tended to and cared for by our new allotment worker and his team of freshly motivated volunteers. It’s bounty brings hope for a more sustainable future for our food projects and a more nutritious, colourful and enjoyed offering for those in need. It offers a chance to provide respite in gardening to those struggling to find calm and relaxation and a group for those isolated or afraid to connect with others. It’s not just a beetroot - it’s something cared for, something watched over and something shared. It is a manifestation of joy, something we all should have opportunity to feel and experience.
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Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
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Object 21
Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
Dove
My friend Rachel (name changed) gave me this one of the last times I saw her, almost four years ago. I had always thought she was the most fun, positive person I knew – until I called her one afternoon around a year earlier, when she told me she was suicidal. Paranoia, psychosis and several weeks in hospital quickly followed, and she lost her job and her rental apartment. She relied on me and a small group of other friends over the next 12-18 months, though much of the time felt that she could be harmed by any of her family, friends, case workers, or even the doctors who might have prescribed medication to help her. Paranoia is especially cruel in that sense. Her main case worker’s workload and periods off work with stress meant there was no consistent public support. I’ll never forget one day when she was ill, when a homeless man was shouting extremely offensive abuse at people in the park that we were walking through. Rachel took her water and sandwiches and gave them to him, and wished him well. He cried and thanked her. Today, her condition is more stable, though she still avoids almost all her friends. I pray that one day soon she will have recovered, and once again be the quick-witted, funny, vivacious person that she used to be.
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Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
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Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
2004/5 Annual Report
This annual report represents my first experience of working across HARP with colleagues. That’s how annual reports were done – people who were interested got together and worked with the designer (Andrassy Design) to produce a record of the previous year’s activities. The brick, as this one became known, was the result of this work. It was a particularly ambitious design – possibly not entirely practical – it cost too much to post out! However, seeing it again after all these years made me reassess the report – to me it represents ambition to do things differently, to be creative, to use strong images and different ways of displaying information, to be playful and innovative and not afraid of space. I know that to many this will just be an annual report. So what? To me though it embodies the spirit of daring to be different. Not for the sake of it but just to try something new and to push things a bit further. We didn’t do it again – it really was too impractical but the reports that came next were probably even better and continued to challenge the standard annual report format. I love this report and it was a great welcome to working for HARP. I felt I was with an organisation that wasn’t afraid to look at alternatives, that involved people and ultimately wasn’t afraid to get things wrong.
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Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
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Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
Assertive Outreach Leaflet
2002 was a year for growth at HARP and this was primarily due to the winning of the contract to deliver the Assertive Outreach service in partnership with Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust– the first in Manchester. Assertive Outreach was about doing things differently – engaging with people with a diagnosis of psychosis and who were finding it difficult to engage with mental health services, usually due to a range of complex presentations. The idea was to develop a teamwork approach, which would sit around the person and be able to bring in the range of skills which were within the team – social workers, nurses, support workers, advice workers, occupational therapists etc. The ethos was about meeting people where they were – whether that was on the streets, in cafes, day centres etc. Initially working in Central Manchester, the service would grow to be Manchester wide in 2007. What it meant for HARP was a trebling of staff and the employment of a manager – a truly new concept for what had been a small and completely non-hierarchical organisation. It was a truly innovative move on behalf of commissioners and HARP became one of only a handful of Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) organisations running this statutory provision. It was challenging work in many respects but it was felt that this new and more holistic way of working suited the HARP style. Assertive Outreach still exists but is now a pathway within community mental health teams.
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Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
Annual Reports 2003/4, 2004/5, 2005/6 and 2007/8 That time of year again? Need to do the annual report – groan. Reporting on the previous year should and often is a great opportunity to reflect and celebrate successes or reassess after a particularly challenging year. HARP, though liked to do things differently in this respect and here is a selection of reports from the ‘golden years’. Strong images, good design, and with the newspaper an ambition to shift things again to enable greater content. These reports (along with the brick) really show that HARP understood the value of design and the importance of presenting information in different ways. The 2005/6 report uses really strong and unusual imagery and different types of paper, there is humour and quirkiness – the adverts in the newspaper and the agony aunt page used as a different way of presenting case studies. The two big reports used size, typography and different perspectives as their focus. They also mark the changes in the environment. The period of bigger and brasher annual reports represented the period of great growth in the charity with Assertive Outreach and Young Adults Support Project (YASP). What followed was the crash of 2008 and a period of cuts to funding and therefore cuts in budgets, so annual reports went online. The affiliation to Mind in 2011 also meant aligning with brand, which inevitably meant less flights of fancy with design.
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Manchester United Scarf
Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
I applied for a job at Manchester Mind because of my Mum. She is Manchester born and bred, and the biggest United fan I know. She famously checked the fixture list to see if United were at home or away on the date of my graduation – they were away so I was spared knowing who she would pick! She is an incredibly brave woman who has challenged the stigma around mental health. During my childhood my Mum struggled with anxiety and depression. She felt isolated, she felt that no one could help her and that no one understood what she was going through. Some people even doubted she was telling the truth when she tried to tell them how she felt. There were times when she was desperate. Mum can’t wait to take her seat at Old Trafford, where she makes friends, feels like she belongs, where she sings and shouts and gets swept away. As she often tells me, ‘for 90 minutes, I forget everything else.’ A better understanding of mental health benefits everyone. I am proud to be part of an organisation that strives to listen to people, to hear them and to understand.
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HARP Café A Recipe for Success Booklet The HARP Community Café first opened in 1994 providing inexpensive, healthy and nutritious meals to local people. It provided a safe space for people to develop basic food preparation skills and to broaden social networks. It also was a place that actively promoted a positive image of what people with mental health needs can achieve. It is striking, when reading this brochure, how much of what was started in 1994 remains the same within our current Food For All service. Our Community Café still feeds local people using our allotment produce and offers volunteering and kitchen training opportunities. Buffets are still delivered across the City through our catering company, Good Mood Food and, our Pay What You Can sessions remove the financial barrier that prevents so many from eating healthily. We continue to value the importance of providing a space where people can come together, to eat and to talk. Over the years, our knowledge and understanding of the links between nutrition and mental health have increased. Some things have not changed over the past 30 years and Manchester Mind’s current beliefs and values echo those of HARP that are listed at the back of this booklet. A belief that achieving and maintaining good mental health is dependent on many factors such as suitable housing, healthy affordable food, freedom from excessive financial stress, purposeful activity and social contact.
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Skepta ID
The need to diversify our funding has never been greater and over the years Manchester Mind has moved with the times setting up Good Mood Food as a catering enterprise, our training courses and fundraising –with any profits made going straight back in to support our charitable objectives. This tag represents how far we have come both with Manchester Mind and Good Mood Food, in being able to run a sustainable business. It provides volunteering opportunities for people with lived experience of mental health as well as great quality catering and an opportunity to promote the connections between food and mental health as part of our Food For All services. Oh and what is the tag? It’s the one that Sharon had to wear as part of the crew for the secret Skepta* gig - part of Manchester International Festival 2019. Good Mood Food providing the food for the crew setting up and Skepta himself! For us it represents how far Good Mood Food has come through some shaky years (it is hard to make money from food), to now being a respected business with a good customer base. It also represents how charities can diversify their incomes. *Well known grime artiste
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Be Proud Award
In 2018 our Peer Support Volunteers group won the Volunteer of the Year Award (Group) at the Be Proud Awards in Manchester – and we couldn’t have been prouder. Peer Support in the form of the Get Help, Give Help groups have been a relatively recent addition to our services. The aim was to provide a bridge from services to community. In a relatively short space of time they have shown the incredible value in people with lived experience of mental health issues supporting each other. The groups have been co-produced, sharing their skills and experiences to create warm, friendly, safe spaces where people can share not only difficulties but successes, strategies for staying well and additional support for people when they are struggling. The groups have brought so much to the charity – showing us the power of working together and volunteers giving their time willingly to help not just individuals but the charity as a whole. Manchester Mind is now leading on the development of a hub across Greater Manchester enabling groups from a wide range of Peer Support to come together and share experiences further. This award is a great achievement, well deserved and was a reminder, not that we needed it, in the value of services being informed from the start by lived experience.
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Manchester Mind Collection Tin This is one of only two remaining “original” charity tins from 2013. I’d just started at Manchester Mind to kick-start fundraising in aid of our local services. With a blank canvas, and a few initial events planned, I ordered 50 tins in ‘royal blue’ (making a DIY label for the front) together with 100 charity t-shirts. In the first 12 months, we raised £22,000, which was a good sign, given the uncertainty facing the mental health charity sector. Donations then snowballed year after year, hitting £238,000 in 2018/19. The level of support we receive is humbling and inspiring, and although the blue plastic tin shows scratches and dents, its withstood the test of time. It reminds me of the determination of our supporters who want to make a difference and how the simple act of kindness by “dropping in a coin” has shaped our collective history. Manchester Mind has not only survived, but thrived, so we can continue to be there for people who need us, now and in the future.
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Cheese Grater
My first experience of Manchester Mind was attending the Mental Health Awareness course – and what an eye opener! There was so much that I still needed to learn about mental health but after attending the training and speaking to people with lived experience, I knew I’d made the right decision to join a team that shares my values. On the course there’s a video with faces on everyday objects, so every time I see this cheese grater smile, it reminds me to look further than the surface and represents the beginning of my journey at Manchester Mind.
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Manchester Mind Training Pack We have been offering services to the community for 30 years and one of the interesting things to develop is the need for awareness and training at both a community level, but also within the workplace. What was once a taboo topic to talk about over the watercooler is now becoming mainstream and there is a higher demand for Mental Health Awareness and Wellbeing at all levels within the workplace. In the last year, we’ve delivered over 230 training courses, and we’re continuing to spread the word to peers, line managers and even senior managers about the importance of creating an open culture and understanding mental health both personally and professionally.
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Sainsburys Mental Health Award A Mystery HARP seems to have had a long running relationship throughout the 1990’s with the Tudor Trust, an independent grant making trust. This isn’t in itself unusual but one of the letters from the Trust referenced that in 1997 HARP had apparently received a highly recommended rating in the Sainsbury’s Mental Health Awards, which meant that the charity was amongst the top three mental health projects nationally. There is no organisational memory or other evidence of this award, but no doubt it was a significant achievement. It hopefully shows how innovative and highly regarded HARP’s services were at that time.
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Talking Stick
In 1999 I joined HARP as an advice worker. We fought hard to make sure that our clients got the right benefits that they deserved. I remember on one occasion a client didn’t get what we hoped for, I felt sorry, as though I’d let her down (it can be an emotional roller coaster being an advice worker). She said “I feel sorry too, but thank you for listening to me, I felt heard and I felt you believed me, no one has done that before for me”. I felt humbled; our work is challenging, but incredibly rewarding. A year later (around 2006) I encouraged the same client to volunteer with us, I always knew she had a lot to offer, as all our volunteers do. She got involved with our service user meetings, called `Raising our Voice!` that I had begun to set up, she felt passionate about people’s voices being heard. One of her many, many contributions was this talking stick. She chose to make it for our meetings, to give people an opportunity to talk without being spoken over, to feel heard, to feel believed.
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A Cup of Tea
Offering our clients a cup of tea is a small, kind gesture that makes them feel they are in a comfortable, safe space. A cup of tea signifies that someone is there for you, listening to you and facilitates in creating a relaxed atmosphere. It is important for our clients to feel that they are being heard as it may have been difficult for them to come and see us and open up about their problems. Clients have been more open with us at Manchester Mind when having a tea as they feel they are in a trusted environment with a friendly face. Staff, volunteers and clients have had countless cups of tea at Manchester Mind and its importance is often underappreciated
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The Early Ones...
Annual Reports from 1993 – 2001. The style might be different and more basic than the ones to come but the content set the standard with plenty of stories of the impact of services and altogether they create a clear line of the development of the charity. There are some missing years – not sure why. Further evidence that annual reports can be a source of the rich history of organisations and they are worth keeping.
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Thank you... to all our funders, all the individuals and businesses that have supported us over the last thirty years, and all our staff and volunteers (past and present) whose dedication and determination supports all of our work.
Manchester Mind: A History In Objects
Thanks also to those staff who made this booklet possible by kindly sharing their objects and stories.
1989 -2019 manchestermind.org/30years f facebook.com/ManchesterMind l @ManchesterMind i @manchester_mind
Registered Charity Number: 1102058 Registered Company Number: 4738057