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Time to Talk

Every night I would check my alarm clock 10, 15 times to make sure that I'd set it to 'on'. Every morning I'd wake with a feeling of dread about the walk to work, and I'd get on my knees to ask for strength. Relief that the working day was over would quickly be overtaken by anxiety about the next day waiting round the corner. Once on the way back from work I stopped in at the local co-op corner shop for some food. I just stood there, unable to choose what to take off the shelves, overwhelmed by the choice. I put the basket down and left without buying anything.

A few years later I sat in the corner of our front room in tears, trying to explain to the kids why daddy was sad. It took a couple of other work colleagues to notice I was looking rough and to sit me down for coffee and help me to talk about why I wasn't my usual self.

I'm blessed, I've not had any deep or longstanding issues with depression, anxiety, or other forms of mental illness. I've had the mental equivalent of bruising or a small crack. But I know that talking to people about what was going on was a massive part of helping me to get through it.

Today is Time to Talk day, 24 hours in which to start conversations about mental health, raise awareness and share the message that mental illness is nothing to be ashamed of, neither is talking about it.

Is there someone you know who's been looking more down and upset lately. Who's taken to avoiding church, the school playground, their usual circle of friends. Who struggles with the greeting 'how are you'? Maybe they could do with a coffee too. 

Because mental illness is nothing to be ashamed of, but it is something we don't talk about enough. 

One Million Conversations #TimetoTalk

The excellent Time to Change campaign, which focuses on ending the stigma around mental health, has hit on a simple and superb idea. 6th February (Thursday next week) is Time To Talk day, with the aim of 1 million conversations around the country about mental health. Here's a bit of the blurb:

As part of our national advertising campaign, we want to get more people talking about mental health than ever before. We're aiming to spark one million conversations. And we need your help to get there!

Sometimes it's the little things we do that make a big difference to someone who's experiencing a mental health problem - like having a chat over a cuppa, sending a text or inviting someone out. So, on Time to Talk Day we’re encouraging people to do just that.

This can involve school, workplace, a local cafe or the kitchen table, and there are various resources, posters etc. which you can get from the site. There was even an ad for it on Dave last night. 

We have a national problem at the level both of resources, and of understanding. 'Care in the community' is a lottery depending on how many friends you have and how courageous individuals can be in talking about what's going on inside their heads. Many do a great but draining job of hiding their sufferings. Meanwhile, despite fine words from the government, mental health services are being cut. 

In this context, one conversation doesn't sound like much, but it might be a lifesaver.

Petition: Put Age Ratings on Music Videos

With a couple of kids at primary school, I'm fairly picky about which channels get blocked on our TV. Anything showing music videos is off air, along with the shopping channels and pornography. I've just signed this petition, which calls for age ratings to be applied to music videos whether sold in shops or online, something which is long overdue. Please consider signing it too.

Here's some of the wording, addressed to the Prime Minister:

I know that you care deeply about the sexualisation of women and girls in the media and are taking action to tackle this. Your commitment to introducing age-ratings for music videos sold in shops is very welcome. For consistency, I would urge you to extend age-ratings to music videos viewed online also, as recommended by a Government commissioned review, because most people now watch and share videos this way.

This is not about censorship as music videos shown on TV, video games, films and ads are all regulated or have age-ratings so that there is guidance on sexually explicit images, and many harmful images are removed altogether. This same principle should apply to music videos online, linked to filters, so that there is a trusted guide about content. Many online platforms including iTunes and Netflix already carry BBFC age-ratings and content advice.

I hope that you will listen to the voices of young women and make this change so that we can enjoy music videos without being bombarded by these harmful images.

Mental Health and Work Capability

Dick Acworth, a former vicar and Archdeacon of Bath and Wells, has a son with bipolar disorder who was wrongly found fit for work by the DWP using the controversial Work Capability Assessment.

In May, as part of an ongoing Judicial Review of the Work Capability Assessment, three judges ruled that the process is unfair for people with a mental illness and puts them at a ‘substantial disadvantage’.

Despite this, the DWP is continuing to use the process to assess roughly 6,000 people a week with mental health problems.

With backing from the national charity, Rethink Mental Illness Dick’s petition calls on Iain Duncan Smith to temporarily stop reassessing people with a mental illness who are being moved from incapacity benefit to the new Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), until changes are made to the test, to ensure it’s fair.

The 76-year-old said: “If my son didn’t have parents to support him and push through a benefits appeal, I don’t know what he would have done. I really fear for other people who don’t have anyone to help them through such a difficult process. I try as much as I can to shield my son from the stress, but this has taken a real toll on me and his mother.

“It is intolerable that the government is putting people through so much stress and anxiety just to get the support they need. In many cases this unfair test is making people more ill. Everyone deserves the chance to be treated fairly.”

more here, the petition is here. 

Churches: getting rid of your organs in a good cause

No, not that sort of organ.

A new campaign has been launched today to encourage Christians to donate blood and organs as part of their giving and worship:

"Donating blood, joining the Organ Donor Register, or consenting to organ donation from a deceased loved one is a unique gift and one that can truly save lives.”

The NHS needs 7,000 units of blood each day to meet the demand of hospitals. The need for organs also outstrips availability with more than a thousand people dying each year in the UK waiting for an organ transplant.

With millions of members across the UK, it is hoped churches can step in to fill the gap.

The campaign is the first time the NHS has worked alongside the churches on a national initiative of this kind.

Churches and individuals will have the opportunity to become blood and organ donation advocates, playing an active role in informing congregations, family, friends and their communities about how they can help save more lives.

More here, official CofE piece here, including this comment by the 'lead bishop on healthcare'

"I would encourage individual Christians and local churches to engage with the campaign as we help address an important social issue and generously serve the communities to which we belong. Being willing to give our time, money and gifts is a significant aspect of our stewardship of what we have received. But this applies just as much to the blood that flows in our veins; and the organs that are such an intrinsic part of our bodies."

The campaign website is called fleshandblood, with some fairly stark stats on the need for more blood and organ donation in the UK,  

and here are the upcoming blood donation sessions in the Yeovil area, via the very handy online session searcher.

Great campaign: to my shame I've not donated blood recently, so I've just booked in.

The 12 Tax Dodgers of Christmas

Ht 38 Degrees. High res version of this pic available for posters etc. here

#PreOccupy Starbucks Announce New Starbucks Price List, Tax Adjusted

The revelation that Starbucks, a company so successful in the UK that it plans to open 100 new outlets in the next 5 years, has paid hardly any corporation tax, probably isn't surprising. But as a coffee shop devotee, it's led to a bit of recalculation at OpVic Central. The Corporation Tax rate for the current UK financial year is 25%, so 25p in the pound of all the profit they make from us, the customer, should be going to HMRC.

It doesn't. Starbucks has tried to justify itself on other grounds - job creation, VAT contributions (which we pay, not them) etc. But it's clear that profit is being made, otherwise they wouldn't be expanding. It's just recorded elsewhere in the supply chain so that it doesn't appear on the UK operations balance sheet.

So I can now announce #PreOccupy Starbucks, a grassroots consumer protest movement. The principle is simple. Pay only 75% of the price of anything you buy at Starbucks, and if they take issue with you, explain that you're making your contribution to them in other ways: smiling at the staff to raise morale, reducing the heating bill due to your body heat contribution to the building, making the place look fuller than it otherwise would.

The aim of #PreOccupy Starbucks is to create an even bigger queue than normal, thus adding to public nuisance, annoying the staff, but not actually achieving a great deal in practical terms. We felt this would give us a sense of common identity with Occupy movements elsewhere.

In case the maths is a bit tricky, here are some of the revised prices.

Americano: Instead of paying £3, pay $3

Grande Skinny Fairtrade Offshore Espresso £2.63 instead of £3.50

Irregular Mockery (replacing Regular Mocha) £2.24 instead of £2.99

Iced Latte Fatty Catty £1.87 instead of £2.50

If this doesn't bear much resemblance to your local, that's because Starbucks don't publish their prices on their website.

In the meantime, perhaps this is the answer (source):

SPCK vs Society of St Stephen the Great: the end.

Phil Groom reports the closing of the book on the sorry case of the Society of St. Stephen the Great, and their destruction of what used to be SPCK bookshops. Full background at the SPCK/SSG blog, (and an update based on the SPCK statement) for those who remember this ongoing campaign. SPCK statement here.

Doing good to feel better: Mental Health Awareness Week 21-27 May

It doesn't seem that long ago that it was depression awareness week, but this week is Mental Health Awareness Week. Great to see the focus of the week this year:

Doing Good Does You Good: Research shows that doing good and helping others is good for your mental health.

As one of the five main ways to manage your wellbeing, we are asking everyone to get involved by carrying out acts of kindness for strangers throughout this year's Mental Health Awareness Week, which runs from 21 - 27 May. Carry out one act of kindness every day....

You could:
•Pass on a compliment
•Smile and say thank you
•Acts of kindness to friends or strangers
•Get involved in a cause that means a lot to you
•Volunteer your time

People are posting examples of their random acts of kindness on a Facebook page. It's actually really uplifting just reading what other people have done. A report from the Mental Health foundation, released to coincide with Mental Health Awareness Week, speaks of a widespread sense that people are becoming more selfish, and are less likely to go out of their way to help strangers.

There's a really good 'Pocket Guide to helping others' free to download, which is a great thing to have whether you've got mental health problems or not. Whatever you think about the Big Society, it would be great for something like this to become a national talking point.

VAT compromise on listed places of worship

The Government has agreed to a compromise arrangement on charging VAT for repairs to listed places of worship. The VAT reform is staying in place, but alongside it the government are adding £30m to a grants pot for repairs to listed places of worship, and ring-fencing the funding for the rest of the parliament. The pot had originally been cut to £7m, and will now be £42m. For comparison, £23m of VAT rebates had been given in 2010-11, so there is more than enough to make up for the costs.

Having said that, it does seem needlessly bureaucratic to levy the VAT, then administer a fund to route it back to listed places of worship in grant form. The arrangements are pretty explicit: From 1 October 2012 all claimants should receive a full payout on the equivalent of the VAT they have incurred on repairs and alterations to listed places of worship.Wouldn't it be easier, and more cost-effective, to abolish the fund and put an equivalent tax cut in its place?

Anyway, good news, and it shows that the government will listen if you lobby hard and well. Which is nice for each single issue, though the danger is that every policy becomes shaped by interest groups and lobbying, rather than a coherent central strategy, and the whole thing unravels.

Coalition for Marriage: Some Speech is Freer than Others

The Coalition for Marriage is campaigning, in response to government consultations and moves on the issue, to preserve the current legal definition of marriage as the lifelong union of one man and one woman.

A link on the C4m home page, which enables people to respond to the government consultation on proposals to enable same sex 'marriage' has run in to 'technical problems', with over 4000 responses to the consultation being blocked as spam by Home Office software.

Meanwhile Cranmer has been reported to the Advertising Standards Authority for carrying a C4M advert (below). This is pretty appalling: whatever your views, if someone can't advocate marriage without being accused of being 'homophobic and offensive' then we're in a bit of a pickle. Echurch blog is keeping a running list of the number of bloggers posting in support.

(Update: the ASA have issued a statement on the case)

I don't see how it's possible to have a consultation, or a discussion of any sort, once we get into people threatening/taking legal action against positions they disagree with. Last time I looked we were a democracy in favour of free speech, though I'm starting to wonder.

The Listed Buildings VAT Protest Song

This very clever song/vid has just gone up on the CofE website, linked to the online petition against George Osbornes hike in VAT on listed buildings. Work o nWakefield Cathedral has had to be stopped because the new VAT rules have raised the bill by £200,000.

Memo to the government: either reverse the VAT change, or relax the planning rules so that churches have more of a free hand to do what they need to do with ancient buildings, rather than being held hostage by heritage societies and listed status.

Prevention of Young Suicides ('Papyrus') - a more deserving cause than the X Factor.

'Home' by Dave Hart. Great song, but it has a tragic backstory. This email arrived yesterday:

Our youngest son Dave sadly took his own life a couple of weeks ago aged 17. He had been depressed but had slipped through the net with regard to help from the medical services and we were not aware of just how bad he was - he we was the 'life and soul of the party' to his friends - and of course doctor/patient confidentiality meant we were in the dark. We are keen to try and help promote the cause of teenage suicide so that others don't suffer the same fate.


To that end we are releasing a song Dave wrote with a friend last year on itunes, amazon mp3, spotify etc in order to raise funds for Papyrus-UK (a charity dedicated to helping prevent young suicide - http://www.papyrus-uk.org/ ) It has been on youtube already and mentioned over the last week on BBC Somerset and Bristol. The song is called 'Home' - search for 'Dave Hart Home'


If you can circulate details of this and encourage people to download a copy (or copies!) of the song that would be great - the amazon link is http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-music&field-keywords=dave+hart+home&x=0&y=0 . It was released today (5th Dec) and we are looking for maximum sales this week to stand a chance of making the charts and therefore more exposure of the cause. So, any help much appreciated.

Church of England Gets Behind Mental Health 'Time to Change' Campaign

Brilliant news, the CofE has officially thrown its weight behind the 'Time to Change' campaign, which I've been blogging on all week. Press release here, more details at echurch blog.

There is now a pack for churches on the official Time to Change website, the pack is in pdf format and includes some background info, and suggestions for use in worship: prayers, readings, hymns, action points, poems etc. Good to see this being offered.

Time to Change also has a pack of free materials - posters, postcards etc., that can be used to get discussion started and give the campaign a higher profile in your church, or wherever.

See also Vic the Vicar, who blogged about Mental Health Day earlier this week

A Personal Experience of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

This week is OCD Awareness Week, and here's a snippet from one persons account of their OCD:

OCD all started for me on Christmas Day 1980. I was eight years old and, after the excitement and over-indulgence of the day, vomited in the late evening. I recall my Mums' words very clearly; “you've eaten far too much and made yourself sick”. From there, I developed an irrational fear of vomiting. Every evening I would lie in bed waiting for my Mum to check on me so I could ask “I'm not going to be sick am I Mum? It's all in my mind”. OCD was born.

I look back on my childhood with sadness. A time which should be protected from fear. A time which should be carefree and without worry was a time of endless angst. I feared electrical plugs being left in and would sleep at night with the plug from my electric blanket against my face. It seemed the only way to be sure it wasn't still plugged in. I rocketed from one anxiety to another with no respite in between. Nobody recognised a child who was suffering. I was “just a worrier”.

In my late teens my anxieties receded. I was able to complete a psychiatric nursing qualification and met and married my husband aged 21. I secured a job and purchased my first house. Life was just as I dreamed.

And then OCD returned.

The fear of vomiting returned. I became preoccupied with the need to repeatedly check best before dates on food. I would seek continual reassurance from my husband that my meal was okay for me to eat. I lost count of the number of carefully prepared meals which had to be thrown away as the fear could not be quashed. I began to develop fears in my work. “What if I give someone the wrong medication”, “What if I give someone an injection which paralyses them”. The compulsion to check my work to quell my anxieties was overwhelming. I felt trapped in an endless cycle of anxiety, check, anxiety, check. It was exhausting.

It was in 1995 where I reached breaking point.
read the rest here

OCD affects about 750,000 people in the UK. For many of these, the fear of what others will think prevents them every telling anyone else, and stops them from going to their GP. Removing the sense of stigma will mean that 3/4 of a million people don't need to suffer in silence.

Short notice I know, but if you're one of my millions of Somerset readers (ok, you both know who you are) there's an event in Bath this evening. Other events later this week.

Mental Health: "Often the stigma is worse than the symptoms"

Following on from yesterdays piece, good to see Alastair Campbell supporting the Time to Change initiative that got £20m of government funding yesterday. Time for Change aims to reduce stigma and bullying around mental health issues. Campbell blogs "for many, this was an area where the stigma and discrimination were often worse than the symptoms, and that the campaign was focused on one of the hardest things of all – changing attitudes. Mental illness is perhaps the last great taboo, and we need to break it down."

The Independent on Sunday reported a survey of mental health sufferers, where 2/3 of sufferers said they found it harder to cope with other people's attitudes to their illness than they did the illness itself. One in 4 of us get hit by mental illness at some stage, but fear of what other people will say or think means that many suffer in silence. Occasionally someone will break the silence, but that still takes quite a lot of guts. Saying you get depression, OCD, panic attacks etc. should be as normal as telling people you've got the flu' or a broken leg.

Back in February Nick Clegg announced £400m of government money would go towards mental health, so I look forward to seeing where the other £380m is going to go. At the moment, this is pushing water uphill - the stress of redundancy, debt and economic uncertainty is massive, whilst those in work are putting in longer hours and wondering when their time will come.

But targeting the stigma of mental health looks like a good move. Normalising mental illness, putting it in the same social bracket as physical illness, can ease the distress of those who suffer. And with very few exceptions, my experience is that if you tell people what's really going on in your head, they may not completely understand it, but they do accept it.

Breaking up marriages for a quick buck: Global Personals.

Too much on to blog today, instead please read this. It's about an online dating site which specifically targets married people, encouraging them to have affairs, and a campaign to get them to stop.

from the link:
I think your company, Global Personals is involved in toxic work. So, I am asking people who reads this letter and agrees with me to phone your offices and ask to speak to your senior colleagues to tell them about how affairs have affected their friends or family and to ask you to withdraw your adverts. We want you to withdraw your adverts and agree to not publicly advertise these kind of websites again.



Although we want people to be polite and reasonable when they contact you, we do want you to know that we are serious about this. If you choose to try and disrupt marriages to make money then we will try to disrupt your business. Your adverts are helping to poison our communities. We want to show that belief in strong relationships and commitment is as powerful as your aim to make money by creating misery for families and children.

Next Stop Yarls Wood

The new Immigration Minister Damien Green has just announced the end to child detention at a centre in Scotland.

However the article goes on to say
From now on, families detained north of the Border may be sent to Dungavel to undergo initial health and welfare screening but would then be moved to Yarl’s Wood, in Bedfordshire, which has specialist family and child facilities and support services. The Pakistani family - Sehar Shebaz, and her baby daughter - whose incarceration hastened the development were due to be transferred today from Dungavel to Yarl’s Wood

This isn't good enough. Child detention at Yarls Wood must stop as well.

SPCK bookshops - a few loose pages

The saga of the former SPCK bookshops wound up fairly rapidly last year following the takeover of the governing charity by the Charity Commissioners, and the closure of the remaining former SPCK bookshops, with Durham making a last stand until the roof beginning to fall in in the Great Kitchen (bit of a metaphor, that) precipitated the closure of the final remaining shop.

A couple of recent developments which might be of interest to folk who've followed all this -
1. The St Stephen the Great charity is being kept under charity commisioners control, and all the tribunal settlements (over £300k) with former staff have been made.

2. The SSG company registered at Companies House has been dissolved.

3. From the sound of it, the re-opened Durham Cathedral shop will need regular encouragement from customers if it's to return to being a top quality theological stockist. Building problems don't help, and I guess the loss of Tom Wright for high profile book launches won't help either, but it would be sad if it just became another cathedral tat shop for fudge and postcards. There are too many of those already.

4. There may be some kind of meet up at the Christian Resources Exhibition later this month in Sandown.