support groups

Person-centred support: what service users and practitioners say

This study examines person-centred support, a key new concern in public services. It does this by bringing together for the first time the views, ideas and experience of service users, face to face practitioners and managers. Government is committed to ‘personalisation’, ‘self-directed support’ and ‘individual budgets’ in social care, aiming for increased choice and control for the people who use services. This is a move away from traditional, 'one-size-fits-all' approaches.

Living with social evils – the voices of unheard groups

In a contribution to the JRF's 'social evils' series, Chris Creegan focuses on the social evils of British society experienced by people whose voices are not usually heard. The research used workshops/discussion groups with lone parents, ex-offenders, unemployed and other vulnerable and socially excluded people to explore their personal experiences of living and coping with social evils. Suggestions for overcoming them point to both individual and collective responsibility.

Women's Aid website

Women's Aid is the national domestic violence charity which co-ordinates and supports an England-wide network of over 300 local projects, providing over 500 refuges, helplines, outreach services and advice centres. Our work is built on almost 30 years of campaigning and developing new responses to domestic violence.

Whole woman: essential information for mums

A small booklet designed primarily for women, although it recognises that men experience domestic violence too. It acknowledges women's fears and encourages them to seek help for themselves and their children. It helps women to understand the impact of domestic violence on their children and encourages them to move on from a position of feeling powerless to being able to take action to improve the situation.

Frontotemporal dementia support

Caring for people with frontotemporal dementia is hard, there are few facilities tailored for the younger sufferer and those are not always appropriate for people with frontotemporal dementia. Also there are no specific treatments yet for frontotemporal dementia. All this adds to the distress, isolation and burden of caring. The PDSG tries to decrease the burden by providing information and support.

Journeys of Recovery. Audio recording. Episode 4

Episode Four of the Scottish Recovery Network's Journeys of Recovery podcast features the stories 'The evolutionary jigsaw', 'Doesn't time fly when you're depressed' and 'To hell and back'. The narrative was derived from an interview conducted as part of the 'Recovering mental health in Scotland' (2007) for the Scottish Recovery Network. It was collaboratively written by interviewer and interviewee and is available in print form in the 'Journeys of recovery' booklet produced by the SRN.