Ellen Ryle, field worker with Grow, a countrywide voluntary organisation which helps people with mental health problems.
What do we really want for 2007 - a new car, a new job or a bigger house? Also, we often think of improving our physical health at the start of a year - giving up cigarettes, losing weight or drinking less alcohol but what about our mental health?
We don't give our mental health enough attention until we begin to suffer. At Grow, we have no magic bullet just simple but effective support and friendship to help people improve their daily lives and become more fulfilled, happier people. Members of Grow are helped to recover from all forms of mental breakdown and also helped prevent such breakdowns occurring again. We are very proactive and help people help themselves.
In 2007, we hope that everyone involved in mental health - the Government, the HSE and others - will realise the significance of what Grow offers the community. People who come to Grow reduce their time in hospital by at least 60 per cent and eventually recover to take their place in the community.
We also hope that Grow's "recovery model" which has been championed for 50 years will be central to mental health for everyone and that the term "recovery plan" will replace the term "care plan" currently used by professionals. We also hope that more and more people will realise that you can and do recover fully from mental illnesss.
In conversation with Sylvia Thompson