FREE DOWNLOAD!Ever get tired or frustrated at having to go over your mental health journey every time you see a new professional? It can be triggering and anxiety provoking. We at HOPE totally agree and have worked together to produce this handy little resource for you.
HOPE is a CIC registered mental health organisation run by lived experience practitioners, in other words, people just like you. Every member of the team have a mental health diagnosis and have been through the sometimes tedious task of having to go from one professional to another retelling our mental health history. So, when one of our team members suggested coming up with some sort of record to take along to each appointment, we were all onboard straight away. Inside this booklet there are pages for you to fill out that cover your treatments past and present, your medication, crisis plans and space for you to write notes on your journey so far. There are also some tips and advice on mindfulness, self-care, emotion regulation and distress tolerance and at the back of the booklet are a list of helplines just in case you need a little bit more support. We’ve added calendars covering 2018 to 2022 as well as appointment reminder note cards for you, so you can plan and record appointments. |
If you find you need more copies of a particular page that is not a problem, just download an extra copy. That's the wonderful thing about this booklet, it grows with you, so you can see your whole journey and how far you’ve come.
So, all that is left to say is good luck on your journey and we wish you well. Love and strength, Team HOPE xx 
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New name: same mission
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We've had a fab few months. We finished the first Empowerment Project group - it was hugely inspiring to see everyone's stories captured on film (check them out on the Empowerment Project page). We've also won a grant from CRCC! That's going to make a massive difference to how much we're able to offer to you all this year. Now, we've decided to rebrand ourselves!
We wanted our new name to speak to who we are, and what we want to do with the group. But we also wanted to move away from a purely diagnosis focussed understanding of the difficulties our members face. We want our group to be as inclusive as possible, with our doors open to everyone who struggles with emotional dysregulation. So, we drank a lot of coffee, came up with some pants names and some names that were so brilliant other people thought of them first. Then our Chairwoman, the wonderful Emily Hawkins, said: HOPE (Hold On Pain Ends). That said it all. It is hope that we hold. For all our members. For their futures, for their families. Our groups try to offer skills that might be useful along the way. We will also will carry on our work within the NHS, offering the benefit of our lived experience - our message of HOPE and recovery. I've just moved the website to the new domain, our new website is: www.hope-cornwall.co.uk. The old link will redirect to the new address, so we don't lose any of you... please pass out the new web address if you're sharing our work with new friends though. |
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NEW: Monthly family breakfast
Everyone welcome, come alone or bring your little people and partners. During this get together we'll be asking for your ideas and updating you on project developments. We're offering friendship and community, and we'd really like you to be part of it. It's on the third Saturday of the month, with the first meeting on March 16th at Truro's Sainsbury's Cafe, at 11am.
We're trying to source some second hand books to create a mental health lending library that will also operate during this meeting. If you've got books you'd like to donate or you'd be willing to volunteer as the group's librarian, please let us know via the contact page.
We're trying to source some second hand books to create a mental health lending library that will also operate during this meeting. If you've got books you'd like to donate or you'd be willing to volunteer as the group's librarian, please let us know via the contact page.
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HOPE: hold on, pain ends
We offer support for those who struggle to manage their emotions. One of the (many) things our committee members have in common is that they've all been given a label of borderline personality disorder. Now, we're working to develop projects that offer supportive experiences for those with similar difficulties in living. These include a family breakfast, peer support groups and a film making group. We work closely with local mental health professionals and campaign for service user perspectives to be used to inform policy and staff education in our local Trust. In all our activities, we foster an attitude of hopefulness, dignity, respect and caring. The spaces and events we share all support our central group aims of teaching, learning and peer support. We offer groups for members with an emphasis on increasing social inclusion opportunities. On the website's therapy pages, we offer skills ideas and reminders. We also partner with local healthcare services. Sharing the unique perspective of our lived experience, we work closely with healthcare students and Cornwall Partnership Trust. HOPE has offered a teaching session for Plymouth University's postgraduate emergency care students, discussing self injury. And most recently we met with the local eating disorder service, to share our experience in setting up our group. |
T H E T E A M
serving committee members
Emily Hawkins - Chairwoman
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Our fab and friendly Chairwoman, Emily, facilitates the East Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) grad group. She's a mum of two, teaches cookery at her son's preschool and is a Rainbow Leader with the guides. This keen panda enthusiast always has a kind word and a listening ear. She's a third year psychology student with the open university and hopes to specialise in child and adolescents mental health.
Emily shares that the trauma she experienced as a child was expressed as anxiety and post natal depression in adulthood. She was given a diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) in 2017 and since then has been engaged in DBT. A year on? She says, "I've got a much more positive outlook. I'm much more positive as a person. I've been back at work nearly a year. Before then, just saying the name of the company would have given me a panic attack. "I love DBT, I think it saved me. I really don't think I'd be here without it. It should be more readily available. I want to help support people who have been given a diagnosis. And I want to help those struggling to cope with the craziness of the world to get their diagnosis in the first place." |
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Gary Parnell - Secretary
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Gary is a DBT jedi. He not only knows his stuff, he practices it daily. And that's the hard part. As well as captaining several local pool teams, he knows his way around a dart board. Gary also facilitates the West DBT grad group. He has had the benefit of several therapies, but says it was DBT that had the most positive effect on his experience.
He says: "It's the one thing I've found that taught me life lessons and made my own world a little less scary, every day. It taught me skills to help me be comfortable in my own skin and head, which I never thought was possible." Gary also has fibromyalgia, which means he is often in chronic pain. He has been part of the West grad group for two years and says when it closed last year, he missed having that point of contact to remind him to put his skills into practice. "I have banned the words should and ought. For me, it's about learning to balance being kind to myself and pushing myself to exceed my own expectations. I've come a really long way. I'm proud - and glad the grad group starting up again in February." |
Peta Temple - TreasurerOur Treasurer is very much looking forward to graduating from her Mental Health nursing degree later this year. She's got an Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder (EUPD) diagnosis and is an active campaigner for better understanding and treatment of the difficulties described by this label. Peta is a mum of two - and says she desperately needs more sleep!
Through her degree, she gets to work in mental health settings all over Cornwall. It's given her a better understanding of the pressures the system is under, and why nurses might struggle to manage the complex presentations personality disorder encompasses. She says: "I'd like to see an early intervention carepathway formed, as we do for psychosis, so we can help people earlier. It took me eight years to build a life worth living, and I'll spend my career trying to make sure other people's mountains aren't that high. Early treatment could save so much misery. And money. "DBT gave me my life back, my self back in fact. Today, I can do just about anything I set my mind to. The degree hasn't been easy, but I've made some amazing friends and they've pulled me through. I'm really looking forward to being able to give back now - and help other people who have similar experiences." |
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Hazel Carter - Community Psychiatric Nurse
Hazel's steadying influence can be seen in all that we do - and what would we do without her? This mum of no less than THREE teenage boys certainly knows how to keep calm under pressure!
It's safe to say she can handle whatever life (or we) throw at her. She always greets life with a smile, a kind word, and somehow always knows the exact right question to ask. You couldn't find a better listener - or cheerleader!
Hazel is super excited about starting to teach Emotional Coping Skills courses for HOPE - and to meet even more of our growing fraternity. She collects people (but mostly animals) and has a small menagerie of dogs, chickens and ducks at home to look after. But looking after people (and animals) is what Hazel does best.
One thing's for sure, HOPE wouldn't be HOPE without this excellent nurse - and friend - to the team.
It's safe to say she can handle whatever life (or we) throw at her. She always greets life with a smile, a kind word, and somehow always knows the exact right question to ask. You couldn't find a better listener - or cheerleader!
Hazel is super excited about starting to teach Emotional Coping Skills courses for HOPE - and to meet even more of our growing fraternity. She collects people (but mostly animals) and has a small menagerie of dogs, chickens and ducks at home to look after. But looking after people (and animals) is what Hazel does best.
One thing's for sure, HOPE wouldn't be HOPE without this excellent nurse - and friend - to the team.
