The last few weeks the team have been around the County visiting some of the Locality Forums that Support Staffordshire hold. We have found them interesting and we've made some good contacts that we can use in future projects for the board. We took Becky our manager along to one of the meetings so she could experience it and she found it really interesting and came back to the office with loads of new ideas, so who knows what will happen!..... watch this space!

On 24 th February Jo spoke with some of the patients at Ballington House about mental health and what their issues were when trying to access the community teams.   One patient told Jo that they had attended multiple GP appointments expressing how low their mood was and asked for extra support. They said that each time, the GP would tell them they would have to wait for the referral process even though they said they were in crisis. No other support numbers were given to the

Last week Jo visited Friends to Friends in Burton to discuss mental health and what support is available to them and how easy it is to access. Friends to Friends are a group for people with learning disabilities that meet 3 times a week. They do lots of activities including crafts, cooking and day trips. One member told us that he has contacted the crisis team about 150 times in the last 3 months as this is the only number he has been given when he is struggling. Jo asked him

This week, Andrew met with Dementia Voice, one of our longest-running co-production partner groups and a new group, the Newcastle social group for Staffordshire Sight Loss (SSL). At Dementia Voice, we talked about the mental health support that is (and sometimes isn't) there for people who've just been diagnosed.   One member described their experience:   "When I was first diagnosed twelve years ago, I had an advocate to support me. I didn't want to put the pressure and the w

Liz took Becky on a trip to Pye Green Community Centre on Saturday to meet with Arthritis UK Cannock Branch. A great session was had talking about wellbeing and how it affected our mental health. It raised some interesting points from more availability of information in the local area as well as how we access information. The consensus was that while progress should be made, it shouldn't be at the expense of everything as a number of members in the group didn't have smart ph

So, the pace is ramping up towards the next Partnership Board and we're out and about over the next few weeks gathering peoples views about Mental Health, both the good and things that need improving! Last week we visited Equal Base and had a really productive morning talking about all the things they did that helped them have good mental health. We also had a subgroup in Stafford which while not many people attended, very valuable information was gained.

It was all change last week as the snow disrupted many of our plans! We were fortunate on Wednesday to manage to get to Lichfield and go to Friends to Friends. Some great discussion was had around Mental Health and what it meant to people. We had views on what good Mental Health is and some strategies that members used to help with their Mental Health . Then we discussed what changes could be made to help everyone have good Mental Health. A major factor was that a lot of peop

It's all go towards the next Staffordshire Disability and Neurodiversity Partnership board. We're out and about this week visiting groups to ask about Mental Health to enable their views to be shared with the board.

So we've been getting festive by attending the Support Staffordshire Locality Forums so that we could network and meet different people to enable us to receive a wide range of views for the next Partnership Board. We start back with a bang in January with visits already planned to Friends to Friends, Burton and Lichfield, Equalbase, Cheadle and Stafford Stroke Group. We're also holding sub groups in both Stafford and Lichfield so we can gain peoples views ready for the next p

Click on the link below to watch. This film was made for the November 2025 meeting of the Staffordshire Disability and Neurodiversity Partnership Board. Barriers to Employment

The majority of last few weeks have been spent getting all the information collated ready for the board meeting today. Andrew has been busy editing the video about inclusive employment and what it means to different groups and individuals. He has also done Easy Read documents ready for the board. Today at the board we are watching a shortened version of the full video. The full version is available on the Asist you tube site Reach Collected Stories , it's well worth the watch

So Nicky and Liz visited Friends to Friends last week and they had a great discussion about buses and employment. It was interesting to see that some of the bus companies are really considerate and helpful which the group really appreciate but some companies and their drivers are not so helpful especially when it comes to driving off before people have sat down. With regard to inclusive employment it was felt that employers need to see the individual and work to their strengt

Liz went to the Cerebral Palsy Coffee Morning yesterday and it was a really enlightening morning. A wide range of subjects was discussed and it was eye opening some of the difficulties people face. We had quite a discussion around accessible and disabled toilets and while there are a number of these around, there are none with hoists in in Stafford, which immediately excludes part of the group from being able to go out for the day as there are no facilities for them to be hoi

This week Andrew (and Mark from the Stoke-on-Trent Community Advocacy project) went to Dementia Voice's monthly meeting at Fenton Town Hall which, by the way, has an excellent cafe and books to borrow. Dementia Voice is run by the local branch of the Alzheimer's Society and supports people with dementia, and their carers in Stoke-on-Trent and North Staffordshire. Dementia Voice were among the first groups to get involved in our co-production work so it was great to re-establi

Nicky was introduced by Simon one of our Experts with Lived Experience to Oak Tree Farm. Simon is one of the Trustees of Oak Tree Farm and he introduced Nicky to them so she could explain about what the Staffordshire Disability and Neurodiversity Partnership Board (SDNPB) does. The visit was very informative both so they learnt about the SDNPB and Nicky gained an insight into the different activities team members could participate in. Having learnt about what the SDNPB does t

So Liz was let loose on her own on Wednesday and Thursday and she went to meet people with Cerebral Palsy at their drop in group in...

On Tuesday, Nicky and Liz visited EqualBase in Cheadle, we got lots of information about what inclusive employment looks like to...

It was a bit of a mix last week, the team were at locality forums and the Staffordshire Autism Joint Implementation Group Meeting. We...

So last week the team were all over the County, we've been to four locality forums throughout Staffordshire and some new contacts were...

Last week Andrew visited Project Indi in Newcastle to do some film work. One of the group had agreed to do an interview for our Collected...