Posts

Posted on

Summer 2024 magazine

Our Summer 2024 issue of Being Alongside magazine is out!

This issue has a big focus on what has been achieved so far with your support through our £20,000 two-year grant programme.

Our chair Ben Wilson provides an update on the grant programme, and sets out the options for extending the scheme beyond its planned two years, depending on how the assisted projects have fared and on how our charity funds are doing.

After a print version of the report of our 2024 conference, the issue goes on to look in more detail at two of our newly supported projectse—Sunflowers Café at Freemantle Baptist Church in Southampton and Pippins Community Centre in Axminster, Devon—and we’re also delighted to feature an update from Sue Clayton of Arnold Methodist Church in Nottingham, letting us know that the mental health befriendly and support group for which provided seed funding back in 2016 is still thriving in 2024.

Our main “think piece” is provided by John Vallat, who shares his thoughts on the meaning and practice of “being alongside”, including the very handy mnemonic “ALIVE”, which helps us to remember some of the key aspects of how we can be alongside someone as we can journey together: Accepted, Listened to, Involved and Included as an Individual, Valued, and Encouraged.

Fr John Cullen offers a thought-provoking review of Lorna Tucker’s recent documentary on homelessness, Someone’s Daughter, Someone’s Son, which closes with a debate on how the phenomenon can be addressed in a holistic way.

Our new patron Dr Larry Culliford provides a feature version of the address he gave to our 2024 conference, in which he thoughtfully reveals how he learnt to become the person he is, and how he helped to found the Spirituality and Psychiatry group within the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

The retrospective theme continues as Jamie Summers offers reflections on his almost 30 years of involvement in our charity.

And finally, as part of our continuing series looking at groups with similar aims to ours, our editor Trevor Parsons meets Renew Wellbeing, the dynamic Christian charity which, in less than a decade, has grown a network of 260 wellbeing spaces and places where it’s OK not to be OK. (A special mention to any keen-eyed readers who write in to tell us which of those 260 spaces is currently benefitting from our financial support! Ed.)

Our magazine is freely available to all digitally. If you would like to enjoy it in glossy paper form, you are warmly encouraged to become one of our supporters.

Posted on

Renew Wellbeing

Continuing our series looking at groups with similar aims, Trevor Parsons meets the dynamic Christian charity Renew Wellbeing which, in less than a decade, has grown a network of 260 wellbeing spaces and places where it’s OK not to be OK

In 2010, full-time primary school teacher, mother of three, and enthusiastic Baptist church member and leader Ruth Rice had a breakdown. Suddenly, seemingly inexplicably, it was all too much.

With all that was going on in her life—all which she loved doing—she had simply “forgotten that I was a human being. Nobody else was terribly surprised when I had a breakdown, but I was! Because I hadn’t looked after myself very well. I’d been burning the candle at both ends, and to be honest, church was a big part of that. I wanted to change the world, and I wanted everybody to come to know Jesus, and I wanted to be the best mum and the best wife. And I wasn’t the best anything. And there was a day came that I just couldn’t get out of my bed.”

Recounting her story at a Renew Wellbeing training course for churches organised by the Diocese of London, Ruth says: “The straw that broke the camel’s back—and it still makes me laugh thinking of it—was just trying to think ‘what shall we have for tea?’ I slid down onto the kitchen floor and cried for an hour. I remember thinking: ‘This isn’t right—I’ll just have a little rest.’ And as it turned out I couldn’t function in my life for about a year.”

Continue reading “Renew Wellbeing”
Posted on

What is it to “be alongside”?

John Vallat shares his thoughts on the meaning and practice of our association’s operational name

“Being Alongside” is the operational name which was adopted by The Association for Pastoral Care in Mental Health some years ago. The meaning and practice of “pastoral care” may be the subject of debate. In this short article I am expressing my own views. My hope is that it may encourage others to in turn share their own thoughts, perhaps for future publication in our magazine and on our website.

I believe that an important element of pastoral care or support is “being alongside”. But what does this mean? One illustration is in the Servant Song written by Richard Gillard in 1977. It has been described by Charles Parvey, choirmaster at Holy Trinity, Malvern as being “an expression of the Christian call to community and friendship, marked by selfless service, walking alongside and bearing one another’s joys, sorrows and fears”. Here are some verses from the Servant Song:

Continue reading “What is it to “be alongside”?”
Posted on

Treasurer needed!

Being Alongside’s honorary treasurer, John Vallat, is stepping down later this year after many years of dedicated service to the charity.

John’s departure means the charity is looking for a successor who can work with our administrator on the proper financial running of the organisation. The responsibilities are not onerous: we need someone to verify online bank transfers, undertake some basic double checking of certain calculations, and work with Lucy to produce our annual financial accounts and budgets.

No formal accountancy training or experience is necessary, though clearly it would help to have a head for figures, and proficiency and confidence with both online banking and Excel spreadsheets. If you know of anyone who might be interested in taking on this voluntary position (or you personally are interested), then please contact our Chair Ben Wilson to set up an informal discussion.

Posted on

Looking back

The ever devoted Jamie Summers reflects on almost 30 years of involvement in our charity

In the early nineties I was running a drop-in centre linked to Hammersmith & Fulham MIND attracting up to 100 people a day, known as Consumer Forum. I had undergone a traumatic time in early 1992 being admitted to Springfield Hospital with cannabis psychosis—my treatment led to my changing career to work in mental health. Visiting the hospital’s chapel, which reflected my Christian faith, was then dismissed by some psychiatrists as symptomatic of mental illness. It seemed to me that my mental turmoil was tantamount to a tussle with God, who came to my rescue. In Autumn 1995 I met the charismatic Jeremy Boutwood, then Chairman of APCMI (Association for Pastoral Care in Mental Illness), and Pam Freeman at a Guild of Health seminar. APCMI’s ethos mirrored my conviction that much of mental ill health has a spiritual core.

Continue reading “Looking back”
Posted on

“Be what you are” – conference address by our recently appointed patron Dr Larry Culliford

Dr Larry Culliford

Here’s a true story. I once created a training programme for medical students, and would ask them to interview a patient and ‘take a spiritual history’, making use of two sets of questions: “Are you religious or spiritual in any way?” And, “Where do you turn for inner strength, courage and hope when things are not going well?” One young man spoke movingly afterwards of how an elderly lady spent a whole hour talking about love. A young woman reported that, in three years as a student, this was the first time she’d come away thinking she’d actually helped somebody. So, just broaching the subject of spirituality can be helpful, and in both directions; for the interviewer as well as the interviewee. To my way of thinking, being alongside is like that. Importantly, it is not doing… It is being.

Continue reading ““Be what you are” – conference address by our recently appointed patron Dr Larry Culliford”
Posted on

Our 2024 conference ‘Aspects of Being Alongside’: report

This year’s annual conference explored different ways that churches and other community groups can effectively ‘be alongside’ those experiencing mental health challenges.

Drawing on the rich experience of our affiliate groups, the gathering enjoyed stimulating presentations from various examples of community-based pastoral support, and lots of opportunities to chat about how these beacons of good practice could help inspire other such projects.

More than 30 supporters of Being Alongside gathered in the wonderful setting of St Peter’s, Battersea, at the heart of the Winstanley Estate.

The day began with an opening address by Dr Larry Culliford – Being Alongside’s new Patron. Larry reflected on his experience as a psychiatrist, in particular in training new practitioners to respond attentively to the needs of their patients. Larry stressed the importance of ‘being’ rather ‘doing’; and of sitting in true company with those who are suffering. He reflected on the role of spirituality as part of the human experience, and the value of meditative practice.

Continue reading “Our 2024 conference ‘Aspects of Being Alongside’: report”
Posted on

Aspects of ‘Being Alongside’ – our annual conference for 2024, on Sat 9 March

Our annual conference this year will focus on different ways we can ‘be alongside’ those in need – with examples from across the charity’s affiliated organisations and beyond.

The free event will feature guest speakers including:

• Dr Larry Culliford, Co-Founder of the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Spirituality and Psychiatry Special Interest Group
• Canon Andrew Wilson, Chair of Croydon APCMH

The event takes place on Saturday 9 March 2024, beginning at 11.00am and finishing at around 3.00pm. Our venue will be St Peter’s Church Hall on Plough Road in Battersea, just a few minutes’ walk from Clapham Junction stations (Grant Road exit, then down right down Plough Road towards the Thames).

Continue reading “Aspects of ‘Being Alongside’ – our annual conference for 2024, on Sat 9 March”
Posted on

Action sheets updated

We’ve revised and updated our set of five “action sheets” which provide valuable advice and information based on the experience our local groups and affiliates have gained over many years.

If you are considering setting up a drop-in session or befriending scheme, or working to make your community group or place of worship more welcoming for people who are in mental distress, we hope you will find them useful.

Posted on

Summer 2023 magazine

Our summer issue of Being Alongside magazine is out, with a cover featuring the theme of “setting free”.

We begin by paying a grateful tribute to our late patron Professor Andrew Sims, who died in November last year, and Jamie Summers reflects on a thought-provoking afternoon of conversation with the distinguished professor a few years ago.

Ben Wilson introduces our new grant scheme for local drop-ins, with a special focus on helping to get new projects off the ground.

We thank outgoing trustees Miriam Reyes, Marissa Lawingco and Stafford Cunningham for their service to our association over a combined total of nearly 20 years.

Continuing our series exploring organisations with similar aims to ours, we meet Befriending Networks, among whose members is our affiliate Battersea Befriending Network.

Our administrator Lucy Roose, a priest with a passion for compassion, tells us about how something as simple as a table can signify something rather special.

The second half of this issue features content from “Setting Free”, the conference we held last Spring with a focus on the inter-related topics of addiction, prison life and mental health. Dr Paul McLaren gives us the medical view of the latest analysis and trends in the area of additions; counsellor Tess tells us how Alcoholics Anonymous enables her to be a better person, and outlines what rehab owes to AA; Revd Jonathan Aitken, a chaplain at HMP Pentonville, entertains and enlightens with the lessons he learned since becoming the first cabinet minister since Tudor times to be jailed; and custodial manager Neil Fraser introduces Pentonville’s innovative Neurodiverse Unit.

Our magazine is freely available to all digitally. If you would like to enjoy it in glossy paper form, you are warmly encouraged to become one of our supporters.