University shop opens doors to public to share mental health services
The University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) is turning its City centre shop into a mental health services centre to mark World Mental Health Day on Monday 10 October.
Local residents are invited to the World Mental Health Day engagement event at UCLan’s ‘In the City’ shop in St George’s Centre on Lune Street. Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust’s Central Community Restart and Mindsmatter Team are both holding stalls in the pop-up shop as part of the celebration from 11.00am – 2.00pm.
The event is an opportunity for members of the public, professionals, staff and students to network and find out more information about mental health services in Lancashire. Community Restart, with support from Lancashire County Council and Southwest Yorkshire Partnership Trust, will also hold an exhibition cataloguing the history of mental health care within Lancashire from the opening of Lancashire’s first asylum in 1816 to present day mental health care provided by Lancashire Care in the community and in the state-of-the-art facilities at the Harbour. The exhibit will be open throughout the week and is free for all.
The Trust’s Chair, David Eva, is also taking part in a #UCLanWMHDchat in the Mitchell and Kenyon cinema in UCLan’s Foster Building between 4.00pm - 5.00pm.
Emma Jones, Senior Lecturer in the School of Nursing at UCLan, said: “We are inviting the people of Lancashire to come along to this exciting event to encourage people to get talking about mental health and wellbeing. The partnership with Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust and other services involved in the event is great for raising people’s awareness of mental health and to promote community engagement.”
"The partnership with Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust and other services involved in the event is great for raising people’s awareness of mental health and to promote community engagement."
Lewis Smith-Connell from the Central Lancashire Community Restart Team said: “We are really looking forward to being involved in the event at UCLan. We want to utilise World Mental Health Day as an opportunity for local people to come along and find out about the service. As a team our focus is to support people with mental health challenges to engage meaningfully within the community. A community engagement event is the perfect chance to have these conversations with local people.”
As part of the event UCLan is also offering a number of other information stalls and activities across the campus; including somatic movement, yoga and free hugs.
UCLan’s service user and carer group, Comensus is holding a special 1 in 4 Film Festival to mark the event’s 10-year anniversary on the same day. The Festival to highlight mental health issues is based in Foster Building on Campus.
For more information and the full timetable of events for the day please visit the following page.