News Release, 20 November 2001
Educationalists have been challenged by Lynn Macqueen of the Learning and Skills Council national office to increase the numbers of people with mental health problems taking part in education by focussing on individuals and moulding a programme around them, rather than expecting them to change to fit a predetermined model.
Lynn Macqueen was speaking at the Citizenship and Community conference, which took place at the Mental Health Foundation on Monday 19 November 2001, launching a new initiative to enable people with mental illness and long term mental health problems take up community education opportunities.
With one in four people likely to experience mental health problems in any one year, Learning and Skills Councils have been briefed by the Government to draw up strategies for increasing participation and improving access to community education for people with mental health problems. The plans are expected to cover both how to support people with mental health problems to get the best from community education and how to promote good mental health for all students.
"We know that isolation and lack of self-esteem are some of the most significant disabling factors experienced by people with mental health problems," said Ruth Lesirge, chief executive of the Mental Health Foundation and chair of the conference. "In our earlier research, Knowing Our Own Minds 1, which asked people about what they found most useful in managing their own mental health, one of the significant factors was keeping busy and achieving things, including through adult education and other activities. I hope that this conference will result in more people finding positive coping strategies for themselves."
The conference was organised by the Mental Health Foundation, Learning and Skills Council, NIACE - the national organisation for adult learning, and the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health, under the auspices of the Citizenship and Community Mental Health Programme which is supported by the Department of Health. Around 50 staff from health authorities and local Learning and Skills Councils attended from across the UK. The conference will enable local Learning and Skills Councils to include the learning needs of mental health service users in their strategic planning and in facilitating the effective delivery of learning opportunities.
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