Changing Our Lives is currently working towards launching a new People's Parliament to focus on the rights of people with Mental Health issues. Daniel McNamee, a Self Advocacy Officer with Changing Our Lives, gave an update on the work he has been doing recently:

"As part of the work around developing the Mental Health Parliament I have been doing some community consultation work with people who have mental health issues and have used both community and inpatients mental health services across the Black Country.
To gather evidence to show there is a need for Parliament I have met with people who attend the Making A Difference group at Delta House. During the consultation I asked people what issues they are facing and what the Parliament should be working on. Key themes are emerging. People are finding that professionals who have little or no experience of working with people with mental health issues are completing the assessment processes for benefits. Another issue is employment where people feel there is employment a real stigma about employing people with mental health issues.

To ensure the parliament is fully supported I have met with various Westminster MPs. Travelling to London I met both Kevan Jones and Charles Walker who are both MPs. I presented the idea of a Mental Health Parliament; both were fully supportive.

Following on from a meeting with James Morris MP, James has agreed that the issues from the Mental Health parliament can be fed into the All Party Parliamentary Group in Westminster.  Other meetings have included a meeting with Dominic Fisher who is a Criminal Justice Liaison Officer based at Church Vale. The purpose of the meeting was to share the idea of the parliament and gather his views."

Members of patient council at Gerry Simon Clinic in West Bromwich had the opportunity to meet 'Blind Dave' Heeley and Steve Dugmore, Changing Our Lives trustee, not forgetting Dave's dog Seamus.

We have been lucky to have Dave supporting us this year – he has run the London Marathon and cycled to Wales and back on a tandem. For over an hour and a half the group asked Dave and Steve all about being part of the opening ceremony at the Paralympics, what it was like for Dave to carry the Olympic torch and how difficult it was riding a tandem bike! (Apparently Steve doesn't peddle much!) Dave explained that you can achieve anything if you work hard enough.

One of the most poignant questions of the morning was around bullying when one of the group asked Dave if he had ever been bullied and how he had dealt with it.
The real star of the morning though was Seamus, Dave's guide dog. The group were interested to hear about how he had been trained and how he works to guide Dave. Seamus fully enjoyed all of the attention and fuss that he got!