Information on resources available throughout Pembrokeshire

Hafal Provides a range of supported housing to promote independence. 01437 765 961 Havenhurst Unit Respite, day care & assessment for older persons with mental health problems. 01646 692 118 Milford House Centre Supported accommodation for adults, including short term rehab & respite. 01646 698 197 Pembrokeshire Care Society [...]]]> PEMBROKESHIRE MENTAL HEALTH DIRECTORY 2010

Information on resources available throughout Pembrokeshire

Pembrokeshire Mental Health Forum last held a review in 2005.  The Forum plays a major role in promoting the interests of service users and carers to the Hywel Dda Health board [...]]]> Pembrokeshire Mental Health Forum

ReviewDay

24th June 2010

10.30am – 12.30 pm

Narberth Drop-in
Downstairs at Bethesda Chapel, High Street, Narberth
Food & refreshments
Travel expenses available

Pembrokeshire Mental Health Forum last held a review in 2005.  The Forum plays a major role in promoting the interests of service users and carers to the Hywel Dda Health board and Local Authority.  We would like you to hear your views on the Open Forum and help plan its future

The day will offer presentations from a range of new services provided by Hywel Dda and WWAMH’s Service User Involvement Toolkit

Happiness is not a goal to be achieved, but an emotion that is a by product of what you do.  Thinking in terms of whether you deserve or don’t deserve to be happy [...]]]> These thoughts are an edited version of an article by Dorothy Rowe, the respected author of Depression: The Way Out of Your Prison.

Happiness is not a goal to be achieved, but an emotion that is a by product of what you do.  Thinking in terms of whether you deserve or don’t deserve to be happy will stop you being happy.

There is nothing wrong with feeling sad, which is the appropriate emotion to feel after you have suffered a loss or disappointment.  Depression is not just being very unhappy. We become depressed when we blame ourselves for the disaster that has befallen us.

Being depressed means feeling that you are utterly alone, locked into some kind of horrible prison, where no comfort can reach you and you will not comfort yourself.  To create the conditions whereby happiness can blossom you have to do some or all of the following:

1. Understand that what you do is a result of how you have interpreted what happens, and that you are free to change your interpretations.
2. See yourself as valuable and acceptable. To do this, you may have to review your childhood and recognise that as a child you came to the conclusion that you must have been bad and unacceptable, otherwise the adults around you would not have treated you as they did. Look at this now from an adult’s perspective.
3. Listen to how you talk to yourself and if you are constantly criticising yourself and making impossible demands on yourself, stop doing it. Be your own best friend.
4. Cultivate the ability to live in the present, paying attention only to what is going on around you. By fretting about what has happened in the past and anxiously planning the future, we inevitably shut ourselves off from a great source of happiness – that of fully experiencing what is before us.
5. Use the ability to be in the present, every day giving yourself some little treats or reward. Do not do this because you deserve it, do it because it’s a nice thing to do.

We have just launched our information needs survey to find out where Pembrokeshire service users find out Mental Health information on local or national issues, your views would be appreciated. Surveys can be obtained from WWAMH office, at Mind, Hafal, and Frame.

When I know how to do it, I’ll set one up on-line!