the shizzle > shootin' the shit
Black Dog Club
shark:
Stemming from the Black Dog mental health thread Ive had chat with Lagerstarfish (Rob) and he’s up for leading a weekly zoom session for UKBers who having a rough time currently or ongoing.
Rob has prior experience of this and will post separately outlining his experience with mutual/peer support groups.
The BMC are kindly letting us use their Zoom account and the plan is to hold each session every Thursday @ 9pm starting tomorrow night.
We think a dozen or so regular participants is a good number to start with but hope for the group size to increase when we are used to the tech and the style of the group.
Because it is intended to be very interactive anonymity within the Group is not possible so it is vital that what is said in the sessions remains totally confidential. It’s ok to discuss outside the meeting what was learned, just not who said what. Meetings won’t be recorded.
Each meeting will start with all participants introducing themselves and discussing how their week has gone. Rob will then pick up on themes and issues to discuss with the Group - lockdown/Covid related issues will probably be most relevant as that is what we all have in common.
Expected time for each session is 90 minutes with a midway tea and pee break.
At the end I’ll message asking for feedback so we can improve the sessions going forward.
If you want to participate drop me a PM and I’ll send you an invitation link to the meeting.
For potential safeguarding purposes can you also send me your real name, postal address and phone number.
lagerstarfish:
Cheers Shark.
So, I have 16 years experience running different sorts of groups within substance misuse services, all of which have involved discussing varying levels of mental health problems. Some groups have been straightforward "teaching", but the most successful have always involved talking to each other, comparing experiences and sharing coping strategies - talking and listening to each other. I have no experience running groups via video link.
I left substance misuse services almost a year ago and am not running any other groups at the moment. I will be running this group as peer support - looking after each other. I am not a mental health professional, but have a lot of experience supporting people through mental health services as well as having my own experiences of poor mental health.
There is a lot of information available on mental health and wellbeing and trying to find the relevant stuff can be really hard. Hearing another individual explain what has worked for them is a great way of getting motivated to make changes, especially if they have described experiences similar to ones own.
In my experience, there is a difference between saying something in words and typing something. There is something about using our voices that conveys feelings and thoughts very differently to typing - tone of voice, incomplete sentences, gestures, general spontaneity - this is what I hope we will get from Black Dog Club. There is also a lot to be gained from the experience of being listened to.
There are obviously significant limits on what help can be provided through such a group - I'll keep a check on what we're doing and where we think we are going.
For those of you who haven't been part of a group like this, it will probably take a bit of getting into - talking can be hard to start with. Just introducing yourself is a perfectly fine start. You will get a feel for what else you want to say as the group goes on.
Structure wise - a check-in at the beginning works well. I will introduce myself and for the first session, I'll start by saying how my week has gone and what issues I've been up against. Then I'll select someone else to do the same.
While people are talking it is natural to want to show support or ask for clarification - I encourage this and we'll have to work out how best to do this. Every group is different in this regard - we will develop our own way of doing this, I'm sure. Questions and support can be typed and will (I think) be visible on the screen - Shark will be keeping an eye on this as I will be concentrating on what is being said. I guess hand signals for support will evolve as we go on.
After each person has checked in I may ask my own questions for clarification and will also ask for people's thoughts/responses - this will hopefully be brief, but I'm not ruling out the possibility that (as long as everyone is involved) we might enter into a bigger discussion of issues.
After everyone has checked in, I will point out a few common themes that I have noticed and propose one for discussion - we may cover more that one so that everyone is involved.
At the end of the meeting I'd like for everyone to say what they have coming up in the next week - good stuff and potentially bad or difficult - again people can offer support or idea on how to cope/deal with these things.
I'm used to groups of up to 25 people, but would feel out of my depth trying that many online for the first time. I anticipate that after people have got know the structure and I have got to know them, adding more numbers to the original group will be fairly easy.
I'd appreciate it if people didn't turn up pissed or drink alcohol on camera.
We'll discuss how we feel about people turning up late, but generally I don't have a problem with this as long as we don't spend too long repeating ourselves.
I'm sure there's loads I should be saying here, but I'm a bit short of time right now - I'll write more thoughts later
oh, please ask any questions you have about Black Dog Club here
tomtom:
Great idea Rob - and thanks for facilitating Shark / BMC.
Andy F:
Fabulous idea everyone :2thumbsup:
lagerstarfish:
Something I just thought of - please don't anyone think that your difficulties are too minor or "not bad enough" to justify attending BDC. Peer support is particularly good for preventing problems getting worse. Also, the things that you have done to stop your problems getting really bad are probably just the things that other people need to hear about.
On the other side, whist the group won't be able to "cure" major mental health problems or be a substitute for treatment that you are on an enormous waiting list for, it could be just the right place to find out how other people cope or get by whilst suffering similar problems.
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