On Thursday, 27th July 2017, three Champions travelled to Inverness and we were warmly welcomed by the HUG Inverness team. We hoped to share a bit about what we do and learn in turn about what they are doing and how we might work together in the future.
HUG Action For Mental Health are a collective advocacy group that are supported by the Highland council and other funders, to help the voice of people with experience of mental ill-health be heard both locally and nationally. They produce powerful reports as well as attend meetings with service providers.
Weekly they host a ‘Think In’, an open meeting for their members to come and share ideas on topics, as well as share food, aiming to provide a space of mutual support whilst also gathering the information the staff team need to produce their reports.
This space was held so well by Johanna one of the workers at HUG. She started in the way many Champions would recognise, using a group agreement to create a supportive space for people to share in. It was interesting to see that their ‘Ground Rules’ included not texting during the meeting and being open to different opinions – both great ideas to use as future suggestions for our work.
For me this visit was a fond return to a group of passionate people who were also my colleagues. I finished working with HUG over 7 years ago and since then there have been changes, but what was great to see was the same welcome and openness remained.
The change I did see was a sense from the team that people HUG aims to influence were not listening as well as perhaps they had in the past. That the voice of HUG was becoming tokenistic in some circles and that they were sharing the challenges of finding resources for their work that so many third sector organisations face.
We shared with the group about our approach at the hub, how they had inspired our beginnings and our take on mental health being something we wanted everyone to explore and challenge self-stigma around this.
The topic of dropping the ‘mental’ from health was a very inspiring one for me. A couple of HUG members shared views and ideas around this that were very energising. Certainly it was something I could not agree more strongly with – that we all have heath and this covers much more than the absence of illness.
We also discussed labelling and how we need to go back to realising we are all humans and that these labels are mostly unhelpful.
Service closures was another key topic; it was sad to hear that many of the services that HUG members so valued were gone, especially in Inverness. However, this was also explored in a movement away from traditional drop-ins to more social enterprises and community led services.
We heard about services in Fort William that had moved and now was located in town which people preferred, unfortunately access was restricted to it to those with specific care plans when this had been much more of a drop in.
Ewan’s Room on the Ardnamurchan peninsula was a more positive story. Founded by parents bereaved by suicide, the organisation is named in memory of their son and was started 8 years ago as a community support group. This has grown to two groups in different locations every week and a phone helpline with two part time workers. This is particularly impressive when you know the geography involved in running this.
The closing thought from the group was that collective advocacy was vital and that with the constant struggle that third sector organiations have to keep going, this can be a real challenge to maintain. However, the whole visit for me it cemented in my mind the vital importance of getting such a voice formally formed in Moray. The HUG team were impressive, but their struggles to be heard despite their high profile should be a valuable reminder that even if you have a voice it does not mean you are being fully listened to.
Thank you to everyone for making our visit so inspiring and enjoyable. I am quite sure it will not be the last time we send a Moray delegation to a ‘Think In’ and we look forward to welcoming their members to Moray for a reciprocal visit in the future.
Heidi
It was a really a lovely day for us although I did not speak too much. We are only 1 year old and HUG team have been around more than 20 years and cover all around the Highlands. They attract more service users and keep running so well.
As I find in the book Family WRAP, it defined a broader family is a group of people who want to be together in a relationship that supports growth, happiness, and wellness. I trust we all agree they have done well to match this definition of family.
I also met a member who hosts a creative writing group. I know him from spectrum centre as an active writer in Inverness.
Matt
I travelled to HUG with Heidi and Matt to be part of one of their Think In’s. Unfortunately, I was only able to stay for one hour but will use this time to reflect on this experience. My understanding is that this organisation has been in existence for a considerable amount of time and transitioned through different spaces to where they are at now.
This was a really interesting opportunity to meet with another group of people coming together to talk about wellbeing. There was a range of perspectives on the role of peer support, on how we label ‘mental health’ and diagnosis and the impact that this has on people.
People took the opportunity to share using small cards to raise attention when they wanted to speak. This was to prevent people interrupting and dominating the conversation. I can see that this is a useful tool.
For me it was interesting to hear about what is going on in the highlands and I look forward to connecting with HUG in the future and finding more out about what they are doing.
Holly
