Open Up North East

Hi!  I'm Philip and the North East Region Coordinator for OpenUp.
 
Have to admit that I'm really excited by our new website and looking forward to actually keeping up a blog page.  You'll probably find I'm not as productive blog-wise as I should be ~ but I'll do my best!!!
 
Well, what can I say to introduce me.  Well, the years are treating me well ~ I've just celebrated our 36th Wedding Anniversary and we've got four adult sons.  Like all of our Coordinators, I'm a Service User / Survivor.  What does that mean?  It means that I've been there.  I know what its like to be put on medication that takes over your life, has side-effects you've not been told about and are all but impossible to come off!  Still I did it and can now call myself a Survivor.  My wife, Eve, is also a Survivor and has learnt the difficult lesson that all too many of the medication they give us claps the weight on!  Then they tell us we should loose weight!!!  Two-faced people are too often!
 
On top of all that one of my sons is a Service User for whom we offer the care needed to keep him off of that dreaded ward.  Last time he volunteered to become an inpatient we couldn't believe the way he was treated!  When I first started with Open Up we were discouraged from tackling the discrimination we experienced from mental health services.  That's no longer the case ~ I think people realized that you can't separate that awful discrimination, and the stigmatizing effects it has on us, from that we experience out there in the rest of society.
 
I'm proud to be a Trustee of our local Service User & Carer Forum.  We are completely independent and employ our own manager.  Another thing that I'm proud of in the area I come from (South Humberside / North East Lincolnshire) is our banning of C&R and replacing it with SCIP.  SCIP means that no longer do staff seek to control us through the use of pain.  At no point are we ever placed face-down on the floor whilst unseen and anonymous staff members torture us.  Instead, if we need to be taken down for our own safety it is onto our backs and we always have someone we can see face-to-face to talk to.  I think C&R (Control & Restraint)  is Medieval.  How can something that always causes serious injuries within any group that is being trained to use it be acceptable in the 21st century?  If you want to know more about this just let me know ~ we're hoping a leaflet about SCIP will be made available soon.
 
My region stretches from Sheffield/Rotherham all the way up the East coast to the Border Lands.  Its a big region but I hope that if you want to benefit from Open Up I'll be there to help.  Its not my job to do the work for you but I can come alongside and offer my support, experience and of course we've got some great courses to offer you.  These courses cover a wide range, from understanding & tackling discrimination through to using the media to the best advantage.
 
Looking forward to hearing from you,
 
Philip.