Mental Health Awareness week this year is taking place between 18th and 24th of May and this year the theme is Kindness. There are lots of brilliant organisations in Dundee who provide support for mental health, and we have reached out to some of these organisations to ask them about their work.
One of these projects was Making Recovery Real –
Can you tell us a bit about your organisation?
Making Recovery Real in Dundee brings public and third sector partners, Scottish Recovery Network and people living with mental health challenges together to agree, develop and implement local recovery approaches as part of a longer term journey to transform mental health and supports in Dundee.
Making Recovery Real in Dundee has three key areas of activity;
· Peer Recovery Network – developing a pool of peer recovery practitioners and creating more opportunities for peer support and peer recovery roles in local organisations and services.
· Recovery Conversation Workshops – using the Making Recovery Real Film to raise awareness, get conversations going and bring about change in the way we think about mental health, wellbeing and recovery.
· Recovery Story Sharing – collecting and sharing stories of lived experience and recovery so that we can positively influence policy, practice and attitudes to mental health and recovery.
How have you had to adapt due to Covid-19?
We have created an online community for our Peer Recovery Network which has enabled us to continue working together.
We have established a Peer Support Line which provides peer support through telephone calls & text.
We have been increasing our online content by sharing useful information during the current lockdown and taking part in awareness days.
We have also begun exploring posting Zoom chats and live streams with guests online. We are planning to increase the capacity of this to share people’s recovery stories and spread awareness of support out there.
Why is mental health awareness important to your organisation?
Mental health awareness is important to us because it starts conversations, which can play a big part in recovery and healthy wellbeing. We believe peer support and story sharing are important processes in this.
Do you have a favourite quote relating to mental health and positive mental wellbeing?
“It’s ok to not be ok”
How can you be contacted?
Louise Yannetta
Mental Health Network Coordinator
T: 01382 305707 Mob: 0788951062
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/MRRDundee/
Peer Support Line – 01382 305735
