Making Waves – RAMH – Self Management Project of the Year Award Nomination

As part of the Self Management Making Waves, find out how RAMH has made an impact on self management in Scotland.

As shortlisted nominee of the 2018 Self Management Project of the Year Award, we want to share with you the learning from RAMH and their success in supporting self management in Scotland.

RAMH have grown and developed their self management project over the last three years embedding the principles and ethos of self management into everyday practice.

Lisa Jane McGuiness, Self Management Coordinator shares how RAMH are making an impact:

“At RAMH, we have taken the project from a place where the concept of self management was met with apprehension to a place where self management is embraced with enthusiasm and passion.

The learning from our pilot project was that the people thought the term self management meant ‘going it alone’ and cutting services so our mission was to work to support people to see self management as a source of empowerment and recovery.

When we started this project and organised workshops we found that people could not see their skills and strengths. Despite actively engaging in activities every day that contributed to wellbeing, people did not recognise that this was in fact self management. Through workshops we supported people to identify their strengths and skills and from this sparked an enthusiasm for sharing their skills with others to help other people self manage. We have come a long way from the initial stage where nobody came forward to facilitate a workshop as they didn’t believe they had anything to offer, to where we are now; having successfully held several skills exchange workshops and we have a list of people willing to share their skills including cooking, film making and mindfulness.

Sharing self management stories

In recognition of the value of peer support we created a space for people to write blogs about their own self management. This space is a platform to share good examples of how people self manage, either though healthy lifestyles, digital support, physical activity being connected or using services. You can read the stories here:

https://ramh.org/self-management/ (this link will take you away from our website) and they have also been shared on our social media pages to increase the number of people that can be inspired by these amazing peers. People also have the opportunity to share their stories by talking to a group at our very successful recovery cafes held quarterly throughout Renfrewshire.

On the website we have also created the RAMH Gaun Yersel symbaloo which ties into the principle of having clear information. Being able to access strategies, tools, advice and community assets means that people are better equipped to understand and manage their mental health.

Self Directed Support (SDS) Pilot

We are currently working collaboratively with the East Renfrewshire Health and social care partnership to promote and pilot SDS. We passionately believe that to self manage means having choice and control and that SDS is an essential tool for empowerment and increased wellbeing.

The project had grown to the extent that not all elements can be captured in a single blog however what can be conveyed is the difference the project has made. People involved with RAMH now talk about self management as though they have always used this approach, we have gone from a place where the term self management seemed daunting to people to a place where self management is spoken about with passion, enthusiasm and confidence. Co-production is at the heart of what we do, we involve service users, peer volunteers and carers in all aspects of project delivery from designing promotional materials to co-delivering staff training sessions. This has created a ripple effect throughout the whole organisation and beyond where people now believe that they are experts by experience.

Find out more about RAMH by visiting their website: https://ramh.org/ (this link will take you away from our website).