Paul Cooper came along from MIND as well as Lee Rawlings from the AWP. Lee showed the communication video that Eddie has been involved in. This is the video that is shown at all inductions for staff. Paul talked about all the courses that MIND run. These courses are available for all carers and service users too. MIND also has funding to set up a safe space for service users. This will be a night time safe space for people in crisis. We have commissioned and worked with St Mungo’s to set up training for carers. The AWP, St Mungos and the Carers’ Centre will be funding three lots of training this year. Details of the training and how to book will advertised on our web site in due course. All in all, this was a good meeting with the usual catch-up and coffee!

On the 13th October, there was a Music in Mind event in Bath. Music in Mind is a special evening, raising awareness and funds for mental health charities for World Mental Health Day. A single called “More than That” was released this year to raise mental health awareness and reduce stigma. The More Than That single is on sale from Bandcamp and iTunes and costs 79p to download. You can also watch the video on YouTube here. We are very privileged to be one of the recipients this year of funds raised by the single and event, and we would like to thank everyone who took part in the event. We were very kindly presented with £250, all of which will go towards helping carers.

Lee Rawlings came to talk about the relaunch of the AWP Carers’ Charter and also the Carers’ Charter Explained document that KS2 Bath wrote 🙂 Also, on the 18th of November, Mary appeared on Radio Bristol and did a really good interview to promote both of these documents, as we are hoping to get as many carers as possible to know about the charter. You can listen to the radio interview here and links to the Carers’ Charter and the Carers’ Charter Explained are here and here. Please spread the word, as empowering carers is paramount to improving the way the AWP works with carers.