Creative Support The Helm Mental Health Service in Lancaster

Wednesday 29 April 2015

The Helm Mental Health Drop In Service

Summer Craft Fair & Open Day

Saturday 27th June 11.00am until 3.00pm

At The Helm Mental Health Drop In Service

1st Floor, Telephone House, Fenton Street, Lancaster.

Telephone no: 01524 840521

thehelmlancaster@blogspot.com

Come to our popular Summer Craft Fair along with friends or family.

Everything included in our craft fair has been made lovingly by people from many walks of life who attend Art, Sewing Workshops or are linked to The Helm. There will be a wide variety of handicrafts and artwork for sale that are truly unique and made in the centre, as well as work created by local self employed artists. A raffle will be held with prizes donated from local businesses in aid of our worthy cause to help promote the service and build awareness. For families there will be a children’s room with Art and Crafts Activities, Lucky Dip and plenty of fun to be had.

Homemade food, delicious cakes and refreshments will also be for sale in our bright welcoming cybercafé at affordable prices. All are warmly welcome.

Free Entry Come and support your local Charity!!

Friday 20 March 2015

Favourite Helm Recipies

Peppered Mackerel & New Potato Salad

1 x pack Smoked Peppered Mackerel

1 x New Potatoes

1 x bag Bistro salad/Baby Leaf/Rocket & Watercress

1 x Cucumber

1 x pack Vine Ripened baby tomatoes

1 x bunch Spring Onions

1 x Lemon

Glug Olive Oil

Sea Salt

Ground Pepper

Chop the new potatoes in half and boil in the pan to the point where they are falling apart.

Meanwhile prepare your salad ingredients. Start by placing the salad leaves you've chosen in a bowl, followed by the bunch of spring onions prepared julienne style. Halve the tomatoes and finely slice the cucumber.

finally skin the mackerel fillets and break up and throw everything into the salad.

Add the glug of olive oil, squeeze in the juice of a lemon and a sprinkle of salt and pepper.

Drain the potatoes and add them piping hot to the salad. The heat will warm the fish and it'll taste amazing.

Serve immediately!

Favourite Helm Recipies

Celeriac Coleslaw

1 x Celeriac

2 x Pink Lady Apples

100g Walnuts

1 x Lemon

3 Tablespoons Mayonnaise

Sea Salt

Ground Pepper

Peel the celeriac and grate it into a large bowl.

Without peeling the apples, grate these also.

Finely chop the nuts and add to the celeriac and grated apples followed by half the juice of a lemon to prevent the apples from browning.

Follow this with the mayonnaise, sea salt and pepper.

Stir and enjoy.

Store for around five days in a refrigerated container.

Thursday 19 March 2015

Our mural has been completed finally!

During time together in a weekly 3 hour time slot for 1:1 support, a lady I've been supporting and I have been working together over the last 6 months on this mural. It was a piece of artwork originally created by Clemens Hasengshwandter, an artist who primarily paints the landscape of the beautiful Maltese Islands.
We took our time over it gridding out the image, however once it was finished, we just couldn't help (with the aid of other artists at The Helm), collaging in birds, fish, wrecks, mermaids.
It brightened up a very dull wall in the art room. We're very proud to finally finish it. It brightens everyone's day and will definitely perk up the centre in the depths of winter.

Friday 20 February 2015

Creative Writing Sessions on Fridays

Every Friday afternoon from 2 till 3.30pm, We run a Creative Writing Group. This is a popular session that has been running for approximately 4 years in it's current format.

The Session takes place in our comfortable lounge area and lasts for an hour and a half.

There is a theme to each session that is brainstormed by the group on a flipchart, often on a positive theme such as, Adventure, Mystery, Intuition and many others. We then write for around 45 minutes on each of the two topics that are based on the subject, reading out what each person has written in turn to the group. We discuss thoughts and ideas regarding each piece of writing before moving on to the next topic, which is a picture round. People taking part will choose a image that the relate to and we start the process again. It is a very creative and supportive class based on peer support and encouragement. A relaxing space to express your thoughts and feelings in a written form, a nice way of receiving feedback.

The following poem was written by Ian Stafford, who attends the group weekly. This piece was written during the session entitled Humour.

Tuesday 20 January 2015

The Helm Carols & Buffet & Christmas Eve

Two local performers and previous volunteers at The Helm alongside our resident musician Henry, performing well known carols as well as some Elton John Classics!

Excitement brewing in anticipation of the revealing of the buffet!

Jolly atmosphere in the kitchen!

There was plenty of food!

The lead up to Christmas can sometimes be a difficult time for people. We decided that instead of having our usual Christmas Craft Fair, we'd hold a carol concert and prepare a free seasonal buffet with some donations we've received over the year.

We hired a couple of community musicians known to The Helm, being previously volunteers for us, instead of a Father Christmas and encouraged a mass sing along.

It was very heart warming and was enjoyed by all.

We contacted people who hadn't accessed for a while to entice them back into The Helm for the party and make them feel included.

It was nice to see so many faces on the day.

A couple of days later we organised Christmas Dinner to be served on Christmas Eve from the café. Lots of people being without family or feeling isolated over the few days we were closed over the bank holidays came to celebrate at The Helm early.

The Cornerstone (another wonderful local charity with a café), provided a free Christmas dinner for people on Christmas Day who were most in need.

thecornerstonelancaster.org.uk

Monday 3 November 2014

Exciting Art Comission for The Harbour

Completed by Alan Robinson

Recently we’d been approached by a prestigious Artistic Director Pete Flowers. He runs a local Community Arts Resource in the local area.

Having attended our Art Exhibition last Autumn and being very impressed, he proposed to us that our Art Group work together with him to create a series of large artworks over 10 weeks here at The Helm, incorporating 3 trips out to local maritime attractions as part of our research.

Pete Flowers applied for funding through Arts & Healing which is part of the NHS for materials and transport. It will be then completed by the end of the year for the opening event in 2015 on the Fylde Coast for one of the wards at the new state of the art mental health inpatient unit The Harbour outside Blackpool.

We are a few weeks into the project now and there has been great input from people here at The Helm. We have also visited the local Maritime Museum as part of our research on the maritime theme and tying them into Lancaster's history.