Developing the space between us to enable better Community Health and Wellbeing.

Mycelium seeks to promote connectedness between people and encourage collaboration in service development in the Forest of Dean.

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Mycelium seeks to promote connectedness between people and encourage collaboration in service development in the Forest of Dean.

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We wish to do so to develop a counternarrative to ‘siloed working’ and the overbearing competitiveness between people, organisations and within emerging systems.

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We value both lived and professional experience equally and work from a horizontal, narrative informed, peer advocacy model with co-production and action research principles at its core.

 

What do we do?

We offer Peer Advocacy, Peer Mentoring & Peer Development for individuals, groups and organisations living or working in the Forest of Dean.

 

For People from our Communities

We work with individuals providing 1 to 1 support.

Using peer advocacy and peer mentoring principles we can help you to develop a ‘recovery practice’ that enables you to get back up after a crisis, or travel safely through a difficult period in your life.

We can help you:

• to understand and respond to social care needs or a health condition and can help you to cope with a situation that is causing you emotional distress.

• to find information, to build confidence as you begin to identify, navigate and try out the wellbeing and self-help resources that are available to you in your local community.

• if issues arise when trying to build yourself up again - we can be there and help you to learn about yourself, your world and your rights.

• to travel through the complexities of recovery from a health condition, from mental illness, trauma or addiction - to raise your voice about what is important to you as you do so.

• to access advice from the best expertise available and can then support you to understand, choose between and explore the options opened up for you by that advice.

• to access community groups and projects and help them in turn to become more confident, compassionate and efficient when supporting individuals experiencing mental health difficulties.

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Peer advocacy will work on up to three specific community advocacy issues at a time, but the Peer mentoring will be open access, an ‘in the background’ wrap around support that will attempt to respond to your unique circumstances and complex needs whilst still trying to link you in with the best expertise available to you.

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For Volunteers and Professionals

“Project Support” - We work with individuals developing groups and organisations

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With consultancy, reflective practice and ongoing support we can help lived experience practitioners, peer support workers and staff with lived experience who are working in the VCS and local health and social care settings, to use their experiences of illness or mental distress in a way that is safe, effective and compassionate for both them and the people they are supporting.

We can help:

• you to develop an idea, a workshop, a group or a project that has arisen from your own unique situation, lived experience or from the skills and awareness gained on your recovery journey.

• provide or link you in with training, information, supervision and a support structure around you to enable you to turn this awareness into a skill that can benefit others in your local community.

• projects, groups and organisations develop their co-production strategies and be a point of contact with transformed mental health services and the wider supports available. We can enable you to implement these strategies in a non ’tokenistic’ & authentic way.

• you to stay well and practice self-care whilst working and using your lived experience to help others who are going through health conditions or mental distress.

 

What does ‘Peer’ mean?

“PEER … One that is of equal standing with another”

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The ‘Peer’ in Peer Advocacy, Peer Mentoring and Peer Development points to shared concerns and experiences.

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Peer support is when we come together with others who have been through or are recovering from something similar. It is about ‘mutuality’ - helping each other through conversations, activities and spending time together. It can help us not to feel so alone or unusual, to realise that there is a possibility of life beyond and outside of the condition, distress or situation encountered.

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Peer services connect people and create opportunities for ‘giving back’; they can help us to take notice of the skills and knowledge we have gained on our journeys while also creating opportunities to use these skills to build better services and communities for the future.

 

 

Who are we?

We are all local people with both professional and personal experience of disability, illness, mental distress and/or have been carers for people navigating social and health care systems.

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We are all individuals who have had extensive experience of managing our own recoveries from illness and mental distress and have learnt much from doing so.

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We all feel that talking to someone who has ‘been through’ and managed to successfully survive and navigate something similar in the past can be incredibly helpful to those who are feeling isolated with that condition, situation or circumstance in the present.

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Though we understand the importance of being supported by someone who understands from ‘lived experience’, we also recognise the importance of skill and learning. We know how important ongoing development is to help convert that learning into a constructive, safe and effective practice that enables others. We have all received extensive previous training and are committed to continued professional development alongside the “lived experience” knowledge that we draw upon.

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We have all benefitted from Peer Advocacy, Peer Support or Peer Mentoring ourselves and are passionate about its enormous benefits for good community mental health and wellbeing.

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We have all had extensive previous experience of co-production work, collaborative working, community development and promoting diverse voices.

 

What have we done so far?

Developing Action Research & our Narrative Model for locality-based peer development

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Over the past two years Mycelium has been drawing together people with experience, professionals and those passionate about community development, to overcome barriers to discussion and rally around shared concerns or stories. The aim of this has been to increase understanding about mental health illness and, most importantly, move towards improvement of the current situation for individuals, families and the Forest communities.

We have developed a Resource Hub, Community-based Recovery Education Sessions and a Community of Practice group for those working with individuals with mental health challenges.

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We have facilitated extensive community-based action research to ascertain need and identify a network of allies. This has been published alongside papers on co-production and has all been fed into the Community Mental Health Transformation undertaken in Gloucestershire.

 

Who are we for?

We have supported the growth of community initiatives that allow everybody’s voices to be heard and we want change to continue to be driven by well-being and mutual aid. We are listening, learning and offering opportunities for all community members within the Forest and invite you to join us on this exciting journey.

• Anyone 16 + who is living or working in the Forest of Dean.

• Anyone who feels that they could benefit from support from individuals with experience of managing their own recovery from mental health difficulties, addiction, mental distress or a health condition.

• Anyone facing challenges in accessing the support that they want and need help to find information, understand their rights, build a support network or develop an advocacy plan of action to raise their voice or complain about the care they have received.

• Anyone with either diagnosed or undiagnosed conditions and people waiting on waiting lists for assessment.

 

Our aim is to respect all perspectives and encourage action and improvement in the lives of all across our Forest communities.

 

How do I find out more, get involved or access Mycelium support?

For more information drop Simon Price (Project Manager and Mental Health Researcher) a message at Simon@fvaf.org.uk or call 07394 945046 to arrange a meet up and find out more about Mycelium Peer Development.