Hot off the press...

Growing Well

Ways of noticing our emotional & mental wellbeing

We spend so much time monitoring and enhancing our physical health. Now let's take the time to actively engage with our mental wellbeing.

The Growing Well kit is for mental health professionals, clients, students, and anyone interested in monitoring their own mental wellbeing. It is made up of 50 cards with a booklet and 5 scaling pads. This practical and highly innovative resource is built around 50 key statements that research has shown are important indicators of mental health and balance. Accompanying each statement is a ‘scale' using simple illustrations of a seed growing into a tree. A user checks the box that is relevant to them—every day or every week, perhaps. In this way the scale can be used to notice change and describe growth, even when words seem inadequate.

The creative spark for Growing Well came from the mental health team from St Luke's Anglicare who developed the tool together with staff from the Department of Social Work at La Trobe University, Bendigo, Australia. Pivotal to the development were consultations with people using mental health services. The result is a tool that can:

• map our pathways through depression, trauma, loss, bereavement, eating disorders; or through everyday health challenges such as stress, self-doubt and low self-esteem
• encourage a focus on strengths rather than deficits
• build emotional balance, mental clarity and reflective conversations.

'Attaining and maintaining mental and emotional wellbeing is becoming one of the greatest challenges worldwide. Growing Well is more than a tool; it offers the potential for artistry to be brought to bear as we strive to find depth and meaning in our lives.'

From the foreword by Jennifer Lehmann PhD

Senior lecturer in Social Work, La Trobe University, Australia

View this resource on our website

Unemployment, depression, domestic violence, and drug and alcohol problems are just some of the issues explored by young Victorian's on Undaground 2 - breaking thru, the latest music release produced by St Luke's Real 2 Reel music program.

Undaground 2 features music recorded by young people engaged in the program throughout 2005 and provides a remarkable showcase of the diversity, raw talent, and passion by which these young artists live, breath and express themselves. It is a rare and breathtaking opportunity for others to hear these experiences, sometimes reflective, sometimes frightening, sometimes provocative, but always honest.

Based in regional Victoria the Real 2 Reel music program has been running since 2003, working with at risk and Indigenous young people, and elders, across central and western Victoria.

The program aims to engage people from these groups and work with them to write, record, and produce music based on their own experiences and musical interests. Although all musical genres and tastes are celebrated, hip-hop is the primary musical medium used because of its relevance and resonance with young people in particular, and because of its simplicity and accessibility.

Undaground 2 features 18 personal stories covering issues such as domestic violence, drug use, mental illness, relationships, hopes for future, and the perspectives of indigenous young people, compelling us to step inside their world for a minute or two and listen.

All funds generated by the Real 2 Reel program are directed back into the not-for-profit St Luke's Anglicare to assist in the running of the program and ensure others are given the chance to be heard. Real 2 Reel also offers one, two or three day workshops.

For more information: real2reel@stlukes.org.au

Undaground 2 will be launched with live performances from participants and special guests at The Old Fire Station, View Street, Bendigo on Wednesday 28 June at 3.30pm.

RSVP St Luke's on 5440-1100

from a participant ...

I have been involved with the Real 2 Reel program for over a year now and I have been amazed to see the talent that has formed as well as the friendships that have been made since I joined.

The program has helped me to express myself musically and given me the confidence to not only deal with the problems in my life but helped create opportunities for the future. Steve Lane and Wayne Glenn have not only allowed us the freedom to grow musically but offered counsel in our times of need and kept us on our toes when we were at our most restless and uncooperative.

Since my involvement in the program St Luke's has helped me to set up my own events management organization named Toxic Aroma. Toxic Aroma is now being contracted to run the CD Launch for Undaground 2, Real 2 Reel's second compilation.

This really does show how partnerships are being made to help everyone achieve our greater goal. We are all on this planet for a similar purpose however you want to look at it.

So please listen to our songs, listen to our stories, help us to spread a message of unity in the community and let projects like these grow to their full potential as they will benefit us all.

Matthew Campbell

aka Matticus Araeliuos

The Mouse is Beginning to Roar

The Stepfamily Association of Victoria

By Margaret Howden

During the early years of stepfamily living I was fortunate enough to work with another stepmother and although our families were very different we were struck by the commonality of issues. At the time we were working in the Counselling and Guidance section of the Education Department. This was a statewide service and during the lengthy car trips spent visiting families we shared experiences on the vagaries of stepfamily life and discussed the need for a support group. An opportunity arose in 1981 and from there the Stepfamily Association of Victoria (SAVI) was born. At the time there were very few books available on the subject and no support. The Brady Bunch was a popular TV show and while my then 9-year-old son readily identified with their stepfamily, we adults were aware that this was far from the reality.

I was fascinated to revisit our first newsletter Blend printed in 1982. In that edition we were, hoping to act as a centre for the gathering and dissemination of information. Furthermore it read , apart from providing support to families and acting as a resource centre we are keen to promote community awareness of blended families and hope to develop ready access to professionals involved with family welfare.'

Twenty-five years on the aims are much the same. The quarterly newsletter is still published. Monthly support meetings run by volunteers have been replaced by a six-session course for couples called Making Stepfamilies Work, which is run throughout Melbourne. SAVI has published the Making Stepfamilies Work course and a leader training course for professionals is also available.

Making Molehills out of Mountains - A practical guide for stepfamilies and a set of ten Tip Sheets are other SAVI publications. Workshops for professionals and stepfamilies are run throughout Victoria and interstate. Telephone support calls, which in early days were taken on our home phones, have been replaced by a five-day per week Telephone Helpline, and there is a growing interest in the use of online support.

What has changed? Stepfamilies are becoming the norm. There are no accurate statistics but estimates are that one in five families are stepfamilies. There is more information available with increasingly more being ‘home grown'. Early on, the name ‘Blend' was eschewed by SAVI as an inappropriate descriptor yet, in maintaining the use of ‘stepfamily', we are aware that it can be stigmatising because of associations with fairytales and cultural myths. Language is deficient in describing the various family relationships of the twenty-first century.

But many things haven't changed. Many stepfamily members still experience feelings of isolation. People entering into new relationships often have no idea what they are getting themselves into. Emotions continue to run high and most of us cling to ideals that create unrealistic expectations for stepfamily living. The stepfamily is a complex family entity involving a web of relationships old and new, which because of their very nature are often incompatible. This is nothing new, for stepfamilies have been around since time immemorial.

However, a wider awareness and acknowledgement of stepfamily issues is essential. The Stepfamily Association of Victoria is working to these ends. We hope that Stepfamily Awareness Day to be held on Sunday 30 July will not only become a national celebration but will raise the profile of stepfamilies enabling them to be seen, heard and better understood.

Margaret Howden is a co-founder of The Stepfamily Association of Victoria. She is a trained primary teacher, psychologist and family therapist with over thirty years experience of stepfamily living. Making Mountains Out of Molehills is a compilation of Margaret's accumulated wisdom from both professional and personal experience.

By Robert J. Campbell

I am ever oh so weary as I drag myself to bed,

Every time's the same for it's the nights that I dread.

I try to sleep but sleep won't come, too many thoughts in my brain.

I pray that tonight is different, that it won't happen again.

I must have dozed for a while for I wake with a scare

Then I realise it's our son quietly standing there.

It's one o'clock in the morning and he says he just can't sleep

This has gone on for 12 nights, it's enough to make you weep.

Once again I sit upright and look to check the clock,

I can't believe that music's going, the time is three o'clock.

I get out of bed, knock on his door, but he can't hear me shout,

Finally he turns the music down but says he won't come out.

I can hear distant noises, vaguely in my mind

Then realise it's morning traffic and everything is fine.

I creep to the bathroom and peep in through his door,

He looks so peaceful sleeping there, flat out on the floor.

I make myself a cuppa and enjoy the quiet time

To face up to all the mess that he has left behind.

And though I am exhausted and sometimes burst into tears

He's still our son and we love him, and always will for years.

My name is Robert Campbell and I am both a carer and a person with a mental illness called Bipolar Disorder. My son and I have suffered with this illness for more than 10 years.

As a way of enlightening people about mental illness I write poetry depicting life from both sides - some funny situations, and some not so funny - just hoping I can help others to cope. If just one person can take some strength from my poems, then I will have achieved what I set out to do.