The “Movin’ On Up” campaign got off to flying start today in Merthyr! A “Movin’ On Up” event took place at the Hafal project in the Pant Industrial Estate in Dowlais and featured a mobile cinema, a classic VW ‘campaign camper’ and a ‘mobile mountain’.
Service users and carers at the event had the chance to discuss the new Mental Health Strategy (a draft of which is expected to be published soon for consultation), find out more about the Carers Strategies Measure and explore how they can get the most out of the new Care and Treatment Plans prescribed by the Mental Health Measure.
Lee McCabe, a Recovery Practitioner at the Hafal project who has personal experience of serious mental illness, said: “The aim of the campaign is to maximise the opportunities for recovery provided by the new Welsh Government Mental Health Strategy and the new Mental Health Measure which comes into force during 2012.
“Service users and carers have achieved a great success in campaigning for new mental health law in Wales. Now we want to take our campaigning to a new level and become fully involved in the development of the new Mental Health Strategy as well as making sure that users and carers can make the most of their new rights under the Mental Health Measure and Carers Measure.”
The “Movin’ On Up” campaign is run by service users and carers and supported by mental health charities Hafal, Bipolar UK and the Mental Health Foundation. The campaign will include 22 weekly county events and will incorporate two mountain climbs with service users scaling Pen y Fan in the Brecon Beacons and Wales’ highest peak, Snowdon. The campaign will also feature an interactive stand at the Royal Welsh Show and, on World Mental Health Day, at the National Assembly. As part of the “Movin’ On Up” campaign service users and carers will run a Seminar on May 17th in Builth Wells in order to develop their continuing dialogue with senior policy makers and providers of mental health services.
• For more pictures from the event go to Hafal’s Facebook page
• For more information on the campaign go to: www.hafal.org
• To get the latest event updates on Twitter go to: http://twitter.com/hafal_