Happy Christmas

Happy Christmas

Thanks to everyone who's shown so much interest and kept coming to our Talkbank meetings on Mondays. It's been stimulating, fun, sometimes even emotional - we listened to Dave's testimony this week and the consensus was how well-written it was, and how moved we were that he could share his life experiences from the heart in such a genuine way. We're looking forward to doing some more of this work in the new year and also finding out what perceptions in particular trouble us and how we can best challenge them. We'll be looking forward to getting these down on paper so that we all know what to look for in the press and how we can tackle them. Hopefully we'll be welcoming some more new faces - and maybe even some familiar ones and having more input from the local media. So, watch this space..

Have a wonderful holiday everyone and see you all back here, usual time and place on Monday January 7.

All the best,

Talkbank Team

What a corker!

Well, we had a humdinger of a meeting this week (always wanted to use that word, but didn't know how). Firstly, a few of us met Jim The Jogger for the first time - and it's great to see him back with his enthusiasm and ideas.
Amanda (Moran - that's the other Amanda), had written a personal testimony, sharing with us her life story and the difficulties she has experienced with mental distress. It was quite an emotional session but she kick-started a trend and we're looking forward to taking a turn and sharing our stories with each other - no holds barred. Well, almost none. It's a great way to get to know each other in a friendly environment and speaking out about our issues as a dry-run for talking to the media.
We also talked about MAGMH's remit in terms of the headlines we can challenge and those we can't. Of course, this led to ferocious discussion on the workings of the media and why they write in a certain way, and what we can realistically do to challenge this. The outcome of our talk was that we're all working towards the same goal in our diverse ways, and that this diversity is welcome. We also identified a need to see more definition about the Media Action Group - and the staff are currently working on a document that will, hopefully, give everyone a clearer picture of where we're going and what we're hoping to achieve.

That's all for now folks, so until next time...

Talkbank talkback

Just wanted to thank everyone who turned up for our talk with The Sentinel this morning. I think we had a very productive meeting and everyone seemed to enjoy it. I know that some of our members took time out from their busy lives just to be here and I hope that you got as much out of it as I did. It certainly opened up the lines of communication and I hope that we continue to think of ways that we can use the media to our advantage. I'd like to see more of the faces that were here this morning because our campaign to challenge stigma seems to be gaining momentum and everyone's help is more than welcome, no matter how much time you can spare.

Keep up the good work!