In The Friend, 16 August 2003.

Art in Mind

Juliette Stoller

This year's Young Friends General Meeting appeal is about raising the awareness of mental health. A creative weekend exploring this subject was held at Bristol (Central) FMH.

As one of the committee members for the YFGM appeal we have been working on developing awareness of mental health and decided to have a weekend around these issues and creativity for the 18 to 30 year-olds. As a non-creative person myself, I felt that I got a tremendous amount from it. I tried things I never would have attempted before.

The weekend started with a thought provoking session on ground rules by Hemmie Legg. The following day we had a chance to experience a range of activities. I had a go at sculpting - drawing out the way I felt handling the cold clay. I found this both relaxing and therapeutic. Drawing images of how I felt, first with my eyes open, then shut and being aware of the contrast of dark and light. Thinking about movement, we worked in pairs and responded to our partner's actions, then reflected on how that felt. The bible-study group used 'hot seating'. This involved people pretending to be God and questioning Him/Her to gain information about a studied Bible passage and exploring it more fully.

One of the most valuable parts of the weekend for the participants was being able to be open about mental health experiences. Helping to organise the appeal has become important for me. If people are able to share their own stories in a supportive atmosphere, then not only will it improve people's mental health but it will also enable them to feel accepted within the community. By sharing you realise how many people have mental health problems and some of these might feel familiar to you.

As Friends, I believe it is essential that we learn how to support people so that we can care for them properly and then they can develop and blossom. This will only happen if we explore the issue and consider how we can help those in our Meetings and communities as a whole.

The group has worked hard to start to raise the awareness of mental health. We are supporting The Association for pastoral care in mental health. Through the money raised we are:

• holding a conference for all in Guildford about: teenagers, mental distress including eating disorders and effects of peer pressure. Details: Senella Denning 01483 567877
• organising a mental health training day for Quakers at Woodbrooke. Improving APCMH's publicity. A day for university chaplains is being held in September.

For further details visit our website on: www.pastoral.org.uk or e-mail juliettestoller@hotmail.com. Cheques can be made payable to: YFGM Mental Health Appeal and sent to: YFGM office at Woodbrooke, 1046 Bristol Road, Selly Oak, Birmingham B29 6LJ.

[See photographs of the weekend here]