Project summary
Mental health service users help to produce a bi-monthly newsletter which provides accurate and up-to-date information about the work of Renfrewshire Association for Mental Health (RAMH).
Project Dates
Start Date: 12/01/2007
Ongoing
Location of project
Greater Glasgow and Clyde
Area of healthcare
Community care
Target groups
Mental health
Guidelines followed
National Standards for Community Engagement
Approaches used
Comments and complaints cards, Exhibitions/ events/ public meetings, Nominal group technique, Round table workshops
Aims and objectives
To provide a bi-monthly newsletter which provides relevant and up-to-date information to stakeholders of RAMH-Causeway (Renfrewshire Association for Mental Health), including persons or groups who are directly or indirectly affected by our project, as well as those who may have an interest in our work.
We aim to:
- meet weekly,
- enable all members to contribute ideas and suggestions for the newsletter, and
- produce informative and useful articles for the newsletter.
What we did
Following various stakeholder events held by Causeway-RAMH it was identified that there was a need for relevant, concise and appropriate information to be disseminated equally to all interested parties. Causeway-RAMH provides support services to mental health service users.
An invite to join a group set up to produce a newsletter was sent to all stakeholders and resulted in a first meeting of 6 to 7 service users. The group has managed to maintain this level of participation since then.
At the weekly meeting they review the previous newsletter and establish if there are any items to follow up, and then discuss future events or areas of interest for the next publication. Each member is allowed the opportunity for their own talents and interests to develop within the structure of the newsletter and are supported, where necessary, by a member of staff.
200 copies of the newsletter are mailed to stakeholders and 100 copies are distributed to local health centres, chemists and schools
Training undertaken
Members of the group attended training provided by East Renfrewshire Council on how to constitute small groups.
RAMH provides a basic computing course for all interested service users.
RAMH also operates a photography group which some members of the newsletter group are attending so that they can apply this skill to future editions of the newsletter.
Evaluation
The RAMH Stakeholder Steering Group is currently reviewing its evaluation processes. In the past the newsletter group tried to evaluate using questionnaires but received a limited response. They have also used suggestions slips and received positive responses from these. Overall, via word of mouth, response to the newsletter has been positive since its inception.
Plans for the future
In November 2009 the group became constituted, which allows them to apply for funding in order to increase their capacity. The members wish to purchase new computing equipment to ensure that all members can access the same programs. They would also like to generally expand the newsletter by:
- increasing the number of pages
- including with more features, and
- allowing contributions from stakeholders at large, giving themselves an editorial role in those instances.