Our projects in North Lincolnshire have already started on their journey to mark World Mental Health Day on October 10th in a creative and original way. Service users and staff from Parkers Lane and Dryden Road mapped out a route around all of Creative Support?s projects for people with mental health needs, totaling a distance of 912.6 miles. Service users, staff, family members and friends are working together to chip away at this distance by walking, running, swimming, cycling ? whatever it takes ? to ?virtually? complete a circuit of all these projects.
Those involved plan to have most of the distance clocked up prior to World Mental Health Day and will then cover the last 200 miles on stationary bicycles at the Parkers Lane project on October 10th. Successful completion of the full distance will be celebrated at 3:00 pm, when each participant will send off a balloon attached with a message from a service user, describing what support means to them. Those who find the balloons, wherever they may land, can contact Creative Support to claim a prize.
This challenge was developed to encourage healthy living, which is increasingly linked with good mental health, and to provide goals for individuals to work towards, whilst promoting team work and friendship building.
?We are all so excited about this,? said Pete Lambert, Support Worker, ?it is a fun and inspiring way to raise awareness about mental health, to promote health and fitness and to acknowledge the valuable support that an organisation like Creative Support provides to so many people.?
UPDATE
Parkers Lane and Dryden Road service users and staff have already covered 474.3 miles so far! They are ?heading? out of Manchester, down to London.
This is far more miles than anticipated, as we are only into week 3. We may be going around all the projects then revisit them! There has been some outstanding commitment from some of the service users ? some serious miles have been covered by a few. This is probably the most amazing and effective initiative I have witnessed! Special mention goes to:
- Craig Johnson (Parkers) and Debbie Todd (FS), as they have put real effort in, and might not have participated were it not for the group activites in place.
- John Tarn (FS), as the idea actually started whilst supporting him. John attends the gym with the group, as well as independently.
- Andrew Brown (Parkers) and Steve Ellerby (Parkers) for the long distances they have covered independently ? Andrew has cycled return trips to Doncaster and Lincoln and Steve cycled to Gainsborough and back.
- Frank Guinn for walking with a pedometer, Carol Hurst who swims independently and Pat Nixon who joins in on the gym sessions.
- Zoe Dent, one of the health trainers, has been actively involved in getting service users involved and has also contributed by running.
- A big thank you to all staff who have maintained enthusiasm and contributed miles to the map; particularly Fran Pearson, Paula Mann and Denise Hegarty. Pete Lambert and John Sutherland also deserve a massive thank you and well done!
Brenda Moss
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