Social Network for RSA Fellows

Mental health, employment - social enterprise challenges

*cross posted from Mental health and wellbeing network*

Hello all,

I'm senior researcher on the Social Brain project here at the RSA. Julian Thompson (director of enterprise) and I are looking into how the RSA might take a fresh look at the issues relating to mental health and employment.

Please have a look at my blog to read about some of the challenges we're interested in addressing.

We're pretty sure that with the expertise, creativity and energy of RSA fellows, we can play a role in shaping a better approach to helping people recover from mental illness through work, shifting attitudes to employing people with experience of mental illness and responding to their needs in the workplace.

Is there potential for a radically different approach to helping people with mental health problems off benefits and into work? How might the kind of changes needed in workplace culture to sustain this come about? How can personal stories of recovery be 'activated' to change the kind of perspective which results in only 40% of employers being prepared to consider taking on staff with mental health problems? Should these issues be tackled top-down or bottom-up or both, and where's the money to do it? What experience/ ideas/ skills do you have? Do you have an appetite for working with us on this?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Marilyn Hyndman on January 10, 2012 at 14:24

An interesting but difficult area to research. You might look at active citizenship as a possible way back into work. We run a volunteering scheme as part of our activities and it has been helpful for a number of people, regardless of circumstances, to get back into employment. However, I would say that there is little to no financial support for those providing such schemes, the idea still persists that because people volunteer it does not cost anything! A similar perception exists with trainees in that the state believes that giving a company a free trainee is beneficial to the company. They may be once trained and if the company has the resources to employ them. Also, it probably depends on the type of work they are being trained or are volunteering for. In digital media, which is what we do, it is expensive because each volunteer or trainee requires their own equipment - cameras, computers etc - and the skills to use that equipment....no allowance is made for this. I think that if there were some allowances made then we would take more people on ourselves, it helps to spread the financial risk involved.

Permalink Reply by Emma Lindley on January 10, 2012 at 16:59

Thanks very much for that Marilyn - it's exactly these sorts of challenges that I think it's important to understand better.

What I'm hoping for is that we'll be able to draw together expertise from across the RSA to develop a project which engages with the issue(s) of mental health and employment from a multi-disciplinary platform.

In the first instance, the idea is to get a group of interested/ experienced fellows together (probably 10-15) for an initial scoping discussion. Is this something you might be interested in being part of?

Permalink Reply by Adrian Ashton on January 11, 2012 at 8:35

as well as my own experinces of working in this field over the last decade or so, if you're not already aware of them, some great resources and case studies, etc relating to this issue that have already been developd ...

video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AduAsnWMjE&feature=plcp&con...

report - http://www.mhpf.org.uk/information-centre/publications/better-menta...

sector network (with lots of resources) - http://socialfirmsuk.co.uk/

Permalink Reply by Geof Cox on January 12, 2012 at 0:05

The miEnterprise project offers a radically different approach to helping people with mental health problems off benefits and into work - supported self-employment - using a mutual self-help 'enterprise circle' methodology backed by new technology which provides everything from social networking to enterprise resource management tools in an online 'collaborative community'.

Do contact me if this sounds interesting -

geof@geofcox.info

Permalink Reply by Marilyn Hyndman on January 12, 2012 at 11:01

I would be happy to help out.

Permalink Reply by Anthony Eldridge Rogers on February 15, 2012 at 11:13

Hello Geof,

I work in the field of recovery from addiction etc. We train recovery coaches. Your miEnterprise sounds very interesting. Can we connect or can you point me somewhere to learn more?

Geof Cox said:

The miEnterprise project offers a radically different approach to helping people with mental health problems off benefits and into work - supported self-employment - using a mutual self-help 'enterprise circle' methodology backed by new technology which provides everything from social networking to enterprise resource management tools in an online 'collaborative community'.

Do contact me if this sounds interesting -

geof@geofcox.info

Permalink Reply by Dominic Pinto on March 9, 2012 at 15:43

I suggest that you could draw on our mental health programme at Blackfriars Settlement, and our social enterprise graphic design shop, Art2Print, by way of a working model. We're in year 3 of startup, and figuring out how to develop and grow ..... from my colleague Bill Stewart's recent mailout:

The business has been developed with the support of Big Lottery Funding and employs one full time professional Graphic Designer. The rest of the design team is staffed by members of the Mental Health and Well Being Service who have completed our advanced graphic design course. These members undertake work experience placements of different lengths to enable them to gain work experience and help with the production of a range of services including logo and brand design, stationery design, posters and fliers as well as invitations, annual reports and other commercial materials.

Please have a look at our website to view a small selection of our work. http://www.blackfriars-settlement.org.uk/Art2Print

Spring Special Offer! For all new public or third sector customers who place an order with us by 31^st March 2012 we are offering a special 25% discount. To find out more about what we can do for you please contact Michael Obaowo on 0207 928 9521 or through the website.

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