Donations Please

Registered Charity Number 1212037

Take a look at this. It’s tops.

Watch this video on YouTube

Shedders, friends and family please collect plastic bottle tops (all colours) and drop them into our donations box at the Shed.

HealthWatch North Yorkshire : The public’s experience of mental health services in North Yorkshire 2023

Not Norton area and not 2024, but not that much changes in a year or so or place to place! Healthwatch organisations exist in all regions and they are set up to be mouthpieces for communities, not authorities and services.

Below is text from a section dealing with Feedback about specific services:

– GPs, mental health practitioners & psychological therapy programme.
– Community & hospital care.
– Crisis care.
– Charities and community groups.
– Social care.
– Private

This is the subsection dealing with people’s experience of charities and community groups:-

• Respondents said they appreciate the more personal approach of charities, with many saying it is great to be able to talk to someone you can be completely honest and open with who will provide an independent viewpoint or simply offer a listening ear.
• There was also praise for the range of different groups and activities run by charities, with people saying it is good to have a non-judgmental, safe space you can go and speak to likeminded people and do activities or tasks that help focus the mind.
• The great support offered by volunteer befrienders, peer support workers, outreach workers and advocates was also mentioned.
• The main issue raised with the services and support offered by charities and community groups was that some of the support is limited by the capacity of the charity, meaning counselling and other support is often only short term. Some respondents expressed their disappointment that useful support groups they have accessed in the past have stopped due to lack of funding.

How does that fit us as Norton Men’s Shed? A lot.

Capacity is an issue but bigger and bigger numbers attending something is not often better. A year ago, with only the Portacabin we were at the limit of 10. It’s a nice number for fellowship as our opening banner says.

However services* need to be available to more who need them. In 2024 as our Annual Report shows we roughly doubled our capacity on any day to 20 across the dividing access road. However it was noted by some (rightly) that the Shed became territorial depending on where you normally worked.

However we also doubled the number of morning sessions from 2 to 4. Mondays get 10 or so and about 8 on the cancer morning, both in the Portacabin.