Grimsby Telegraph<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0|\u00a0Posted: November 25, 2013<\/p>\nSUCCESS: The Mind Works project in North East Lincolnshire has achieved most of its three-year targets in just 10 months. Pictured, from left, are mental health development worker Ian Disley, volunteer mentor Lisa Sandford and service user Annemarie Stones.<\/p>\n
A PROJECT set up to help people with mental health problems get into volunteering has already smashed most of its three-year targets, just 10 months after being established.<\/p>\n
Mind Works is a scheme run by Voluntary Action North East Lincolnshire (Vanel) and funded for three years by the Big Lottery.<\/p>\n
It was launched to help those suffering with mild or moderate mental disorders get voluntary work and ultimately paid employment.<\/p>\n
The project was given a target of getting 10 people into work over three years. Just 10 months in and the number of service users helped into paid employment stands at 15.<\/p>\n
In addition, Mind Works has also helped 31 people into voluntary placements and exceeded its target for the number of people it has trained up as mentors.<\/p>\n
Vanel’s Ian Disley, mental health development worker for Mind Works, said the organisation had identified a clear need to support people with anxiety or depression into voluntary placements.<\/p>\n
Vanel’s Volunteer Centre was constantly getting people coming in who wanted to volunteer but were quite anxious about it.<\/p>\n
“They might have been out of work for some time and had developed anxiety, and needed additional support and some form of befriender or mentor.”<\/p>\n
Mind Works provides support through a buddy system in which a mentor will accompany the service user on their first day in their placement and offer support and advice thereafter.<\/p>\n
Mind Works also runs a wellbeing workshop every Tuesday afternoon in which service users are taught essential life skills to help them cope when they have a stressful day.<\/p>\n
There is also an art group every Thursday afternoon, which gives people an opportunity to try their hand at arts and crafts, drama, music and creative writing.<\/p>\n
Since last December the project has received 110 referrals from various agencies, including Navigo, the Change Programme, Mind, Open Minds, as well as directly from Vanel’s Volunteer Centre.<\/p>\n
One of those to have used the service is Annemarie Stones, 34, of Cleethorpes.<\/p>\n
She said: “I had one job for 13 years and was made redundant and I didn’t have a lot of life experience. My confidence was a big barrier. This has been ideal for me to build my confidence up.”<\/p>\n
She began volunteering at Age UK and is also starting a placement at North East Lincolnshire Credit Union.<\/p>\n
She is studying for a Level Four qualification in accountancy with Premier Training and her ultimate aim is to get a paid job with an accountancy firm.<\/p>\n
“I go to the Tuesday wellbeing group and we learn a lot of different techniques to cope with depression and anxiety; for me it is writing things down.<\/p>\n
“Meeting different people has given me a bit more of a social life. I see my mentor Lisa for an hour a week. That’s good because I can discuss any problems at my workplace because I am a bit anxious at times.”<\/p>\n
Her mentor Lisa Sandford said: “I support clients that have anxiety and depression, that are looking to get into voluntary work but aren’t feeling ready.<\/p>\n
“Some clients who come in find it hard to get out of the house. Seeing them move forward is very rewarding. They don’t have a lot of a social life so getting them out speaking to people regularly is a big deal. It’s good getting them out there, building their confidence up and getting them to meet people who have the same issues as them.”<\/p>\n
Anyone with a mild or moderate mental health disorder who would like support to get into volunteering can call in at the Volunteer Centre or call 01472 231123.<\/p>\n
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Mind Works project helping people with mental health problems into work smashes By\u00a0Grimsby Telegraph\u00a0\u00a0|\u00a0Posted: November 25, 2013 SUCCESS: The Mind Works project in North East Lincolnshire has achieved most of its three-year targets in just 10 months. Pictured, from left, are mental health development worker Ian Disley, volunteer mentor Lisa Sandford and service user Annemarie […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"xn-wppe-expiration":[],"xn-wppe-expiration-action":[],"xn-wppe-expiration-prefix":[],"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[4,32],"tags":[103,98,95,96,310,97],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s3cThd-3007","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3007"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3007"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3007\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3009,"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3007\/revisions\/3009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}