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.
Jeremy and Pam invited me to listen to Jean Vanier speaking at Friends House and I reciprocated by asking them to speak to my Consumer Forum people one Sunday in Hammersmith. Both events were inspirational and soon I joined the APCMI Committee, rising to become its unofficial Vice-Chairman soon after.
When after a few years I no longer worked directly in mental health, I took a back seat until 2013. When work commitments lessened, I rejoined the Committee of APCMH (Pastoral Care in Mental Health), now with the added soubriquet Being Alongside. At this time we were meeting in rooms at St Paul’s Church, Marylebone, sometimes enduring four-hour sessions! There were moves to enrol our charity onto social media sites which I resisted, not being a fan. Who needs abuse from trolls?
Soon after a think-tank session at a residential retreat, notable for disappointing sleeping quarters but excellent lemon drizzle cake courtesy of our Administrator, I took on the role of Chairman, doing a five year stint ending in 2019. My three elder sisters weren’t as impressed as I might have hoped, but for me it was an honour to be appointed Chair of a national mental health charity.
I undertook to visit all the drop-ins, cafés and befriending schemes associated with us, and enlisted Suzanne Heneghan (an ex-Chair herself) as my Vice-Chair. Her help was invaluable and we together revamped our tri-fold information leaflet and info sheets. Persuading Canon Roger Royle (of BBC Radio 2 fame) to become a Patron when Bishop Stephen Sykes died was beneficial. Roger had been one of the vicars at my school.
We twice took stalls at the annual Christian Resources Exhibition at Excel in London, even though it cost us some £1,000 a pop. Suzanne sourced shoulder bags and pens with our logo and we distributed scores of magazines and info sheets to delegates. Whether our attendance was worthwhile is a moot point but we were the only exhibitors addressing mental health issues in a church environment. Suzanne, Miriam Reyes, Margaret Rainbird and I manned our stalls, and in the second year we exhibited paintings by Adam Boulter.
During my tenure we made the key appointment of Trevor Parsons to edit and produce our magazine, Being Alongside, after the many years of diligent service in that role by Steve Press. Trevor also took on the task of migrating our website to a more modern system that makes it easy for staff and trustees to update. Nick and Gail Cotton, the extraordinary couple devoting every Wednesday evening to run the Forest Hill drop in, were particularly helpful in Trevor’s recruitment.
A couple of disappointments were that I didn’t manage to interest a Burgess Hill church in starting an APCMH affiliated café; and that, despite many hours of hard preparatory work by Mary Wright (formerly Hillier), we did not succeed in publishing a separate tri-fold leaflet aimed at encouraging UK churches to do more for the mentally distressed. There may have been some relief when I returned to being a Trustee without portfolio after my five-year stretch, as relationships were sometimes difficult. Nevertheless it was an honour to have served as Chairman, and gratifying to have encouraged sufficient donations to our cause over the years to ensure that APCMH/BA was in a healthy financial position when I retired from the role.
Temporarily Gail Cotton took over as Chair before Richard Allen stepped in in 2020. Marlene Collins, the Administrator, after many years of devoted service decided to retire in early 2021. Geoff Shorter, Helen Trout and I advertised the Administrator’s position in the Jewish Chronicle, the Church Times and elsewhere. We were delighted when Rev’d Lucy Roose accepted the post and she has subsequently become vital to our charity’s progress, not least by securing a change in our banking facilities—a bit of a challenge these days, ask Nigel Farage!
New additions to our Committee were Ben Wilson and Stafford Cunningham who encouraged the restarting of conferences post Covid lockdowns—something we hadn’t done since John Vallat’s days in the ‘80s and ‘90s. In 2021 I was asked and agreed to become Chair again for a year. At this time some were doubtful about APCMH’s viability and thought we might have to close down and gift our assets to some other like-minded charity. I argued strongly that our Christian based ethos is unique, and that our message should not be dissipated. With John’s support my viewpoint prevailed, and APCMH rededicated itself to its work.
I remained as a Trustee on the Committee for the permitted nine years until late 2023. We are now in the safe and secure hands of the superb and dedicated Ben Wilson as Chair and the indispensable Lucy as Administrator. May God continue to bless our work.
Floreat Being Alongside! Florebit!