Saturday 25 March 2017

FEEL March News EXTRA

​​Dear Friends,

Due to a variety of exceptionally urgent issues, please find a few extra dates for this month and some other important information.

The criteria for PIP claimants with mental health conditions shamefully is under further attack. The government seem to be going back and forth with changes. Please read more about this HERE

According to UNITE half million people have had their benefit suddenly stopped and sanctioned in the past 12 months.
FEEL is supporting UNITE, DPAC and other organisation that are leading the National Day of Action Against Sanctions on Thursday 30 March. Find a variety of times and locations in London and nationwide for this day of action HERE

For those unable attending the march please share the news and links widely and do consider joining THUNDERCLAP; the positive effect on raising general public awareness on this matters is very important.

Following the premature passing of young Survivor Dina Ibrahim, we wish to send our condolences to Dina's friends and family.

Dina's and Robert Dellar's lives will be celebrated at next week Survivors History Group meeting, on Wed 29th March at Together, 12 Old St, London EC1V 9BE, between 1-4 PM
Please find the 2017 draft programme for the SHG - open to all - meetings, HERE

Soteria Network are holding their AGM on Saturday 1st April 11am – 4pm​ at the Kirkgate Centre, 29a Kirkgate, Shipley BB18 2EH

News From Nowhere Club is hosting an event dedicated to William Morris on Saturday 8th April.
Evening kicks off at 7.30pm with a buffet (please bring something, if you can!) for 8pm talk at Epicentre, West Street, Leytonstone E114LJ. More info HERE

Are you aware about INSPIRE, the mental health consortium recently formed in Tower Hamlets with the participation of several local organisations? If you want to find out more check their website to learn more and how you can get involved.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST!

FEEL has now finalised not one, but two forthcoming events planned to take place soon.

The long awaited Research into Antipsychotic Discontinuation and Reduction (RADAR) update will take place on Friday the 12th May. Dr Joanna Moncrieff has kindly accepted FEEL invite to be present on this occasion. The same evening there will also be updates about the serious situation and changes with PIP. If you know of a suitable speaker do send us some suggestions, please.

On Tuesday 16th May FEEL, the Gandhi Foundation and other community groups of Kingsley Hall will be supporting the screening of Katharine Round's film-documentary The Divide.
More info with details and leaflets to share for both events will follow in April.

Wishing you a good weekend and much LOVE to all Mothers of the World!

Comrade Morris is not Dead! On the 8th April - (by News From Nowhere Club)



Saturday 8th April 7.30pm buffet (please bring something, if you can!) for 8pm talk at Epicentre, West Street, Leytonstone E114LJ

William Morris was active as a socialist from 1883 till his death in 1896. While remaining a designer, craftsperson, artist and poet, he travelled the country speaking to working-class audiences on topics like 'Useful work versus useless toil', 'How we live & how we might live', and 'A factory as it might be'. In 1889, his 'utopian' novel, News from Nowhere, was published. This talk will look at how Morris related to others active at the time, including Eleanor Marx and the anarchists who joined his Socialist League, and will suggest that his ideas may be more relevant now than ever.

The speaker, Colin Waugh has a long experience as a further education lecturer, including 21 years teaching Liberal Studies with industrial-release engineering students at Tottenham College. He is the editor of the magazine Post-16 Educator. In 2009, to mark the centenary of the foundation of the Plebs League by students at Ruskin College, he wrote the pamphlet ‘Plebs’: The Lost Legacy of Independent Working-Class Education. He is involved with the Independent Working-Class Education Network (IWCEN) which developed around this pamphlet.

New PIP restrictions for Mental Health Patients (by Stephen Woodhams)

Dear Reader,

Even by this government’s standards it’s a shockingly cruel move.

Last month a tribunal of judges ruled that claimants with mental health conditions such as severe anxiety have a right to claim even the higher rate of PIP for help with going outdoors.

It was a decision that put an end to years of the DWP deliberately misinterpreting the law. It meant that many thousands of people with serious mental health conditions finally had a chance to gain a little bit more independence.


So the government acted with remarkable speed.

Bypassing the social security advisory committee, who are supposed to get the chance to comment on all changes to social security law, they published a statutory instrument that will reverse the judges’ decision.
 

In an effort to justify overturning the judges’ ruling, Tory policy supremo George Freeman mocked as “bizarre” the idea that claimants with mental health conditions should be eligible for PIP. Instead, he said, PIP should only be for “the really disabled people who need it.”

The changes will apply to all claims made from 16 March, 2017


Please sign and share the petition

Monday 13 March 2017

March FEEL meeting Monday 20 March 6:30 PM @ LARC

Dear Friends,

It is exactly one year since the RADAR research programme (Research into Antipsychotic Discontinuation And Reduction) started. There are plans to have this topic as one of the themes of the next forthcoming FEEL event.
Details will be discussed and decided next week at the monthly FEEL meeting at LARC on Monday 20 March from 6:30pm.

The 2017 Peer-supported Open Dialogue conference is taking place next Wed 22 March 9:30-17:00, Regent Hall 275 Oxford Street London W1C 2DJ. Tickets are on a donations basis.

Also on Wed 22 March there will be the online conference Rethinking Madness: Psychosis and Spiritual Awakening, also ideal for less mobile individuals.

The last shared announcement is about The Lifehouse opening tomorrow, Tuesday 14th March 5.30 - 7.30 pm.
See description to follow:

THE LIFEHOUSE is a weekly informal discussion group that often touch on issues of anxiety, anger, depression, isolation. Everything talked about in the group is private. Meetings are free, and refreshments are provided.
At the moment the meeting happen every Tuesday 5.30 - 7.30, at the Bromley By Bow Centre, St. Leonard's Street, London E3 3BT. Eventually the hope is to operate 24 hours, 7 days a week.
Call Nick : 07926886372 if you can't locate the room. For further information you can email Kevin on kevineva58@btinternet.com