New peer support group aims to improve health and wellbeing

Living with serious mental illness (SMI) can be challenging, especially when it comes to accessing adequate support. Many people with SMI die from preventable illnesses 15 years earlier than their peers, due to a lack of support for lifestyle changes. This inequality can be addressed by improving access to lifestyle changes and support to make these changes a part of their weekly routine. This is where the SMI project comes in.

Your Health Partnership have launched a peer support group for individuals with SMI, regardless of ethnicity or diagnosis, to provide support to patients, carers, and extended family members. Their goal is to create a community where people can feel comfortable and supported without experiencing any stigma attached to their diagnosis.

The SMI project is aimed at offering informal health and activity sessions with the goal being to create a community where there is no stigma attached to a diagnosis of SMI, and where participants can engage in leisure activities and socialise.

The group meets for two-hour sessions in a leisure centre, with an opportunity to join in activities such as carpet bowls, followed by a coffee and social catch-up, with social prescribers available to offer continued support to patients and carers.

To establish and demonstrate the need for this group, taster sessions were held in December, with board and card games offered to keep the atmosphere light and welcoming. Interest was established, with some regular attenders accessing swimming and enquiring about gym inductions.

The group is supported by volunteers, including patients who have joined as volunteers.

Volunteers are an established part of the team, welcoming new patients, organising registers, and providing support to social prescribers.

CL, a 58-year-old man with schizophrenia, is one of the patients benefiting from the SMI project. He has physical health problems that require specialist mobility equipment, and his wife is his full-time carer. CL struggles with illiteracy, making communication difficult. His physical health has worsened, leaving him feeling vulnerable, low, frustrated, stressed, and isolated.

CL required intensive support from social prescribing and was selected to take part in the SMI project. From the initial consultation, his issues were identified, including problems with his neighbours, who were often causing arguments and complaining to the council, and his property being unsuitable for his needs as he was on the first floor and had fallen several times trying to access and leave his property.

PRIMARY CARE, COMMUNITY AND THERAPIES

CL also mentioned that he was physically attacked while riding his scooter and gets verbally abused regularly by other road users/pedestrians. He was also at risk of diabetes and was encouraged to make lifestyle changes. The SMI project provided him with support and solutions to these issues, including finding him a new property that was more suitable for his needs, providing him with advice on staying safe while riding his scooter, and offering guidance on healthy eating and lifestyle changes to avoid the risk of diabetes.

The SMI project has held eight sessions from February to March 2023, with 93 people attending, including staff and visitors, of whom 63 were patients and carers. Speakers covered topics such as IT, healthy eating, willow weaving, aromatherapy and hand reflexology, community library services, and board games.

The group is a testament to the power of peer support and the importance of ensuring there is equal access to adequate support for people living with SMI.

Letters, of less than 200 words please, can be sent to the Communications Department, Trust Headquarters, Sandwell Hospital or by email to

Your Right To Be Heard

Are parking charges coming back?

Dear Heartbeat

I have been using the Q Park parking facilities for quite a while now since joining SWB but wanted clarification about if parking charges will be coming back to the hospital staff? Times are hard at the moment and if they are coming back, it would be really harsh as money is tight for many of us here. I also heard that the charges will even be going up and not just staying the same. Some clarification of what will be happening with parking charges would be appreciated especially as financially things are so challenging.

Dear colleague,

Thank you for sharing your concerns about car parking charges. I understand your worries and would like to let you know about our plans for car parking charges.

Our Trust and fellow Black Country trusts have no immediate plans to reintroduce parking charges, despite other trusts across the country and locally reintroducing such charges.

Contractually through Q Park, we are required to uplift prices in line with inflation, but this is capped at a level which is much lower than actual inflation.

Given the pressure on our finances and those of the NHS, when we reintroduce parking charges, we will look at applying an uplift. If agreed, this will be applicable to those staff members who pay car parking charges. Any uplift will be clearly communicated before reintroducing charges.

We will share any future updates via staff communications channels. Please keep a look out for future updates.

Best wishes,

Dinah McLannahan Chief Finance Officer