This year we shared some Winter Wellbeing packs with our community. If you didn't get a chance to pick one up at our winter warmer - you can download the booklet here! Please be aware that the booklet has been designed with a layout to be printed and stapled in the middle, so the page numbers look a little scrambled when viewing online.

In the booklet you can find some activities contributed by staff and volunteers for staying well during the winter period.

You can also download our alternative Christmas decorations activity sheet here, and make your own version of what Christmas should look like! We have included some quotes from our service users to inspire you...

We are pleased to invite you to attend Healthy Minds' Annual General Meeting!

It will be held on Zoom video conferencing on Monday 6th December 2021, starting at 7pm and lasting for about an hour.

This is an opportunity to hear about Healthy Minds' work for the 2020-21 financial year, along with how we've managed during 2021 with the ongoing challenges of Covid-19, and our new hybrid approach to supporting people who live and work in Calderdale.

All are welcome to attend the AGM. To book a place, please email info@healthymindscalderdale.co.uk. We will send details of how to join when we confirm your place.

Please feel free to pass this message on to others. We hope that you will be able to join us.

With best wishes,

Jonny Richardson Glenn

Chief Officer

Public note - board meeting 7th July 2021

Download this board meeting public note here.

The delayed publication of this note is due to the cancellation of the board meeting planned for 22nd September 2021. This note was approved at a meeting of the board of trustees on 2nd November 2021, for publication on Healthy Minds’ website.

The Healthy Minds board of trustees met via videoconference on Tuesday morning, 20th July 2021, with three trustees present, and the Chief Officer, and two other staff in attendance.

The Chief Officer presented his written operational update to the board, together with a funding update. His written and verbal update included the approach proposed for emerging from lockdown.

The main topic for discussion at the meeting was Healthy Minds’ Strategy. The current Strategy is for 2019-22 and may be found on the About Healthy Minds page of the website. We want to refresh of the Strategy, for 2022-25 (period to be confirmed). We want this to be done through staff, service user and trustee engagement, starting as soon as possible. We want to ensure that, in a context of organisational growth (staff turnover and new starters, new services, approaches to delivery such as hosting the public sector mental health project), sufficient attention is given in the Strategy to maintaining the identity and integrity. Our identity is our “anchor”, and what makes us, uniquely, Healthy Minds. We want to ensure that our stated values reflect this. We suggest adding some clear goals to our Strategy. We don’t necessarily want to lose the stated “challenges” but we think that there is a longer list of “drivers”, but that these need to be described more briefly so as not to take away from other parts of the strategy: ambition, values and (new) goals. The board of trustees looks forward to engagement on the Strategy in the autumn of 2021, and is aiming to launch the new Strategy at the AGM, provisionally planned for 24th November 2021.

The board also considered other matters, including: quality standards for health, reports from the Development Sub-Committee and the Finance Committee.

From this week, most of the remaining Covid-19 lockdown restrictions will be lifted.  We know that there will be many different feelings about this, across staff, volunteers and service users. We support Calderdale Council’s message to remain cautious, be kind and help each other to stay safe.  We want to strike a balance between what we are allowed to do and what we see as responsible to do. During lockdown, staff have done fantastically well in successfully kept activities going online and by telephone.  We see the value of a cautious approach. As we all play our part, we can look forward to being able to enjoy true freedom without such extreme caution – surely something we all want, whatever our views.
 
Paul Hunt
Chair of Trustees, 2nd November 2021

Throughout August, participants at our allotment in Todmorden took part in a sound recording project, facilitated by local musician and sound artist James Mabbett. The project was commissioned by South Pennines Park, as part of their work this summer to engage communities in creative activities that help connect them with our local environment.

​James brought sound recording equipment to the allotment and engaged the group in an experimental experience, encouraging participants to explore the sounds around them, and collect recordings of these found sounds.

"I provide participants means to explore, and to make discoveries independently. On this occasion, I provided handheld digital recorders and headphones, the intention being the group look for, and record sounds that best represented their place" 

James then produced a sound composition created from the sounds recorded by the group, weaving in music and a piece of original poetry written by one of the participants. The final composition, 'A Fulfilling Day With Little Disturbance', presents a totally unique sensory experience of our beloved allotment, providing a sound-capsule of this specific place and the experiences of those who know it.

"They were hearing things within the spaces that they had not heard before. I like the idea of making people stop and listen for a while. The Todmorden group described it as quite a mindful process, because we are really focussing in on this noise."

You can listen to the final piece here:

And you can watch a short film about the project below, produced by Studio Bokehgo.

Here you can read Lou's beautiful piece of writing, inspired by nature and included in the final sound composition:

After we said goodbye, I heeded my strong need to be in nature for most of the day and to be near water, so took myself for a totally absorbing and invigorating walk around Hollingworth lake in the wind and rain, where I watched and later wrote these words;

'Birds Of The Lake'

A single lapwing in her little island world,
pecking curious about her old fledged nest,
on which she sat, only two months ago patiently waiting a seemed eternity - her young have all since flown and left their home and her alone.

Another bird in far distance struts the edge of a shallow mainland,
and a nonchalant distraction now separates the pair as their instinct to breed has played out for another year.

Tall herons stalk long, crane - like, stretched then bent legs, stepping out in jagged interrupted strides - huge, hunched birds deserving of respect, their genetic Egyptian ancestry embedded in ancient mud.

Several relaxed moorhens,
lazily meander about with no particular intent,
drunk in charge of the water's edge

pied wagtails jauntily flicking long black tails up and down, longer than their body's measure,
pecking for short bursts before take-off for another flight.
Africa on their minds!

House martins swoop and soar across the lake to hunt for tiny midges - cutting their wings scissor close just above the water mark - hypnotised and hypnotic in their joyous rapture - a wayward community of free spirits!

An eight chick still fluffy clutch of this year's ducks,
huggle up together to preserve their body heat through searing wind and rain,
their barely larger mum in sentry stance, just observes from nearby.

A single white, graceful swan glides uninterrupted with her now almost fully grown,
but still grey cygnet, following close in her choppy silver slipstream tide.

A fulfilling day, at one, and almost alone - with nature….


- Lou Pendlebury

Recovery & Support have loads on offer. Find a variety of free groups and activities across Calderdale to help you feel well. Whether you need emotional support, information, resources or relaxing activities, we can help you find the right fit for your needs. Our Recovery & Support service is here for anyone in Calderdale.

"The groups and workshops that I have attended have made all of the difference to me. All the other things I used to do have stopped, and it’s been really hard being on my own. Being able to use zoom to get to Healthy Minds and see people and learn things it’s been a real life line."
- Recovery & Support Service User

Find a complete list of all of our Recovery & Support groups, activities and courses in the pdf below!