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All is CALM in St Helens?
All is CALM in St Helens?
One of the groups who find it most difficult to access health & wellbeing provision is young men. Over the last 7 years St Helens has been part of the Merseyside CALMzone, a campaign targeted at males aged 15 – 35 jointly commissioned with 4 other PCTs across the Merseyside footprint.
With suicide being the biggest killer of young men in recent years, and the stigma of mental health problems creating barriers for this group, the Campaign Against Living Miserably’s work focuses on positive mental health promotion and suicide prevention tying into the PCT’s new strategies and hopes to be able to work across the Halton area soon.
“Credibility is central to CALM’s work,” says Merseyside CALM co-ordinator Simon Howes “We have to work really hard to ensure our target audience see us in the right places and associates us with things they respect and listen to.” As a result the campaign works with radio stations like Radio City, the most listened to by 15 – 35 year olds in the St Helens area, links with music clubs and artists and is promoted by St Helens RLFC.
Currently CALM promotes it’s website as a way to engage with young men and their lifestyles and offers information and advice as well as signposting. It also promotes services like Kooth.com, recently launched in the region. It hopes to soon re-launch its highly successful helpline and interactive online services as well as a new mobile phone based texting service. “Our message is that being silent isn’t being strong,” says Simon, “Many lads are struggling with relationship breakdowns, debt problems, common mental health issues or self-harm but think it is more manly to bottle these things up. We want to challenge this myth.
” Recent surveys have found 29% of residents in St Helens had heard of CALM and know about its services. The organisation has exciting plans this year also, having already had a presence at St Helen’s recently held Eclectica music event which attracted over 15,000 people and saw many of them getting CALM info and pin badges. CALM often works in partnership with others and is working with the STOPPS Volunteer group and St Helens Council arts & events workers on an Urban Arts festival and arranges local distribution of materials in partnership with St Helens College and the Princes Trust Volunteers, getting posters etc into places like local chip shops, barbers and betting shops.
Mark Swift, Mental Health & Wellbeing Health Improvement Specialist for Halton & St Helens adds, “CALM is a great example of an innovative and cutting edge approach to these vital issues and I’m really pleased with the PCT’s continued commitment to fund this work locally. It’s another exciting element in our work to make the region happier and healthier.”
For more info on CALM please visit their website: www.thecalmzone.net or contact: simon.howes@thecalmzone.net