Organisation Name: Re-energize Contact name: Koula Serle Job title: Co-manager email: kserle@hotmail.co.uk telephone contact: 07792 849 261 www.takingcontroloxon.org.uk - the Oxford County Council self directed support information website. We are under case studies and then under personal stories with the heading ‘Re- energize'. www.socialinclusion.org.uk - We are used in two case studies. Simply type in Re- energize on the search facility.
Re-energize is the Oxford based mental health, user-run sports and social group. Re- energize offers something different, in that, we focus on befriending and socialising, as well as just our sports activities. We provide social events at 'natural' times, in the evenings and at weekends, and our sports sessions at 'convenient' times in the afternoon.
Members meet entirely in the community, away from professionals and (to some) stigmatising mental health venues. We are a great place for people moving on from a service, or those who want to move away from professional involvement. Re-energize is a stepping stone back into the world outside of mental health, providing people with fun things to do, with friends to socialise with.
Everyone who has had contact with the mental health services is welcome to join us. We have no waiting lists or other signing up bureaucracy. We currently have twenty members, of mixed age and gender. However, people do move on from the group as a stepping stone back into their own goals and aspirations, and routinely we have new members joining us.
Funding:
We have received an initial start up grant from the Department of Health. We then collaboratively used direct payments to fund the group. At the time of writing we are in the process of applying for core funding from our local PCT.
Support provided:
Peer support and the opportunity to be away from the services and professional involvement. This support is unpaid.
Links with statutory mental health services:
We have been used as a model of good practice by the Department of Health and the National Social Inclusion programme. We are currently involved with our PCT Keeping People Well scheme, as well as an Oxfordshire User Led Organisation (ULO), the Oxfordshire Wheel, bringing together all disabilities for overseeing local services, brokerage and a one-stop shop for information regarding self directed support.
Supervision and training provision:
we purposely avoid any official training which negates from the ethos of the group: no professionals, no one subscribing ‘treatment', not being ‘looked after', and no bureaucratic structures. The beauty of the group is that we are mental health survivors and that we relate to each other without power relationships but naturally and organically.
What have been the benefits for individual service users (and others) accessing your project?
The needs Re-energize meets include: battling isolation and loneliness; the wish to do activities and socialise; the want to be in the community and not segregated from it; and the desire to have fun and enjoyment.
We enable our members to have confidence to be in the wider community outside of mental health, and to build social skills and battle social phobias. Members have found that their own confidence has grown, and that they are able to do more things outside of Re-energize, as a result of being a member. Furthermore, we feel that we give a positive image of mental health, being seen in the community.
Are you considering any future developments in response to the ‘Personalisation' agenda?
I have been trained in support brokerage. I attend the Oxfordshire brokerage forum to inform brokers of our service and to make Re-energize as accessible to brokers as possible.We are part of the Oxfordshire Wheel, a ULO that will be Oxfordshire's hub for brokerage information, including a helpline. We may be involved with peer brokerage, however, that is too early to say at this stage and is just an idea.
Key terms: Direct payments, brokerage, peer support