Following our recent special report on mental health Julie Blackburn looks at the work of one local charity which is broadening its remit to offer help in this area.

Manx Cancer Help came into being 35 years ago to support anyone whose lives were affected by cancer, be that the patient or their family and friends.

However, recently the directors and members of the team at the charity sat down and reassessed the services they were offering, as its chief executive, Andrea Chambers, explained.

’Cancer services on the island have changed,’ she said.

’Hospice is the main provider of palliative care but also provides psychological support for people with cancer and some other life-limiting illnesses as well and we have no wish to duplicate services that are being offered elsewhere.

’So we looked at whether our service was still required and at the way we could best move forward for the future and we realised that the psychological impact of such an illness doesn’t change according to the illness so that people with motor neurone disease, with Parkinson’s disease, with auto-immune athritis and a list of other life-changing illnesses also have significant psychological needs which weren’t being met.

’With the expertise that we’ve built up supporting people with cancer we knew we could help and that has become the new focus for our service though our cancer service will remain unchanged.’

The people they help are not usually terminal cases. They are people who will be able to get on with their lives but who are dealing with the impact that their illness has had on them and on the way they live their lives in the future.

As well as GP referrals and self referrals, Manx Cancer Help works with three other local charities.

’They pay us to provide psychological support to people with the illnesses that they’re supporting and we would like to expand on that,’ said Angela.

’Without Wings, The Manx Autoimmune Arthritis Trust, is an example and it’s a really strong collaborative partnership.’

For everyone who comes to it, the charity has been able to provide a haven of peace and relaxation at the Lisa Lowe Centre in Tromode and there they can have free and confidential specialist psychological assessment and counselling sessions. The centre’s clinical team is led by Professor Robin Davidson, a consultant clinical psychologist, and also includes clinical psychologist Marjorie Forrest; cognitive behavioural therapist, Adrian Venn, and pyschotherapist and complementary therapist Claire McKinlay.

With all this expertise available the charity also recently took the decision to start offering their services more generally to assist with mental health and wellbeing and they have been working with a number of companies on the island in this area.

Andrea said: ’Everybody at some stage in their lives is going to have a mental health need.

’It’s understanding that and recognising that and making it OK for people to say "actually I’m struggling a bit".

’It might be a divorce or financial worries or whatever they’re going through that cause us all hiccups during our lives: it’s looking at that and realising that with a few changes and some support from your work or from us as well we can help people get back on track.

’It’s broadening out our remit from the life-changing illnesses but we realised that that was essential.’

Gareth Nicholson, who looks after the charity’s operations and events, added: ’We’ve noticed that attitudes to mental health are very much changing: everybody is really excited about the ability to be able to help their staff members.’

The charity is currently in talks with the government’s human resources department and two other large local companies about using its services.

As part of this, Professor Robin Davidson is holding an series of specialist workshops on three areas - managing general depression, anxiety and stress in the workplace; harmful addictive behaviour and the workplace, and impact of traumatic events in the workplace.

Gareth explained: ’We have created these workshops to raise awareness of how to look out for signs of mental illness and how to improve working environments. And with all of these things, if they’re caught early enough, the money saving is huge to the company.’

Andrea added: ’We have very large numbers of people coming here who say "I only wish I’d known that some short term intervention earlier on could have changed the way that I’ve lived my life", so for us it’s about catching people early and helping people realise that we can change the way we think and that the way we think does affect our wellbeing.’

The name Manx Cancer Help clearly no longer describes the full range of services the charity now provides.

Accordingly, although its name will not be changed, it will be more usually referring to itself as ’The Lisa Lowe Centre’ which is now its trading name.

Referring to the charity’s new, wider focus, Andrea said: ’We are totally funded by the public on the Isle of Man and we take that responsibility very seriously. Every penny that they give us we spend to the best of our ability to help people.

’People feel comfortable coming here to the Lisa Lowe Centre. We build trust with people and that’s important.’

* If you are looking for advice about stress and anxiety you can find tips on exercise and nutrition to help improve mental health on the charity’s website at www.thecentre.im.