History
Introduction
Castlemilk Stress Centre was born in November 1994. Prior to this Healthy Castlemilk had provided some therapeutic services in the community but it was recognised that a dedicated Project was required to meet the continued demand for services. A steering group was formed by a number of local organisations and Castlemilk residents and a proposal for the establishment of a Stress Centre was submitted. The aim of the proposed project was:
To provide a wide range of flexible Stress Management Services for people in Castlemilk.
The proposal was successful and the steering group received a grant from Urban Programme monies and the original staff team were employed in November 1994, and by March 1995 Stress Management Services were available..
Progress
Over the years there has been major developments within the Organisation and the achievements of the Stress Centre are widely recognised in the community. The Stress Centre works successfully in partnership with many organisations to provide services including; Health, Social and Education Services and local Voluntary organisations. The Centre benefits from continued support from the fore mentioned organisations, Castlemilk Partnership and the Local Community.
Funding
The Stress Centre began life as an Urban Funded Project, which guaranteed Funding for the first 4 years with a view to be considered for a further 3 years funding. However in the 4th year of funding the structure within Castlemilk changed and Glasgow Alliance were employed to manage the Budget for Castlemilk. This meant that funding was no longer guaranteed and as the dedicated budget for Castlemilk was being reduced each year the project was in fact, in a very vulnerable position. However through the efforts of the staff and Management Committee other opportunities for funding were found.
In order to generate additional income, small charges were levied for services, the rate depending on people’s personal circumstances. Also, other organisations in the area can buy services from the Stress Centre. Further to this income generation, the Stress Centre has had a great success rate in funding application to Trusts and other agencies
From 1999 the core services of the Stress Centre have been funded by Castlemilk Partnership, previously from SIP funding, now from Community Regeneration Fund and Greater Glasgow National Health Board, which is applied for annually. In addition to this income generation, service agreements, organisation and management overheads contributed by Funders of the other Projects within the Stress Centre make up the 'core funding'.
The Centre has also been successful in securing funding for the following Projects which operate within the Stress Centre:
Youth Stress Centre: Funded by GGNHSB, The Big Lottery, Esmee Fairbairn and Lloyds TSB Foundation
Stress Centre Opportunities Project (SCOPE): Funded by The Big Lottery
Stress Centre Choose Life Project: Funded by Choose Life Action Fund and The Robertson Trust
We have also currently secured funding to develop a pricing strategy and employ a full time worker to market services to increase income generation and service agreement that will subsidise the services provided to the community, in turn contributing towards the future sustainability of the Project
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Services:
It was recognised that Castlemilk was an area of deprivation with high levels of unemployment and poverty and many people were living in stressful conditions, all contributory factors to high levels of poor health in the area. The Stress Centre was set up to provide Stress Management services to people in the community who did not fit into the categories of other service providers e.g. drug and alcohol services, but who never the less were in need of support.
The Stress Centre provides a wide range of Stress Management services to help alleviate the detrimental effects of Stress and provide clients with tools and techniques that they can apply in their daily life’s to help them cope. Services are tailored to the needs of the individual and/or group and include individual therapies in Aromatherapy, Relaxation, Reflexology, and Reiki. Classes, groups and workshops are provided on a needs led basis and can include Stress Management Classes/Workshops, Aroma Workshops, Personal Development Programmes, Relaxation Classes, and Yoga.
The majority of Stress Centre clients come to us via self-referral, which is encouraged, as people have to be ready and want to benefit from our services. On average we have 5 new enquiries per week and this has remained constant over the years, each client is treated as an individual and is invited in for an initial chat as their first appointment. This allows staff to find out information about the client and the client to find out a little more about the services we provide. Individual treatment plans are then agreed.
As mentioned in the introduction, the Centre also works with a number of local organisations providing services tailored to their specific needs e.g.
· Aberlour Trust: providing individual treatments to the residents supporting them with their addiction issues.
· Stewart Centre: providing treatments to clients with mental health problems and working in partnership with the community mental health team.
Additional services
Castlemilk Youth Stress Centre
Further to the “Core Services” there have been developments to services that are adapted to cater exclusively for children and young people.
Castlemilk Youth Stress Centre is a project funded by the Health Board, Community Fund, Esmee Fairbairn Foundation and Lloyds TSB to provide support to children and young people that will enable them to be more active members of society and improve their quality of life. We aim to do this by providing services that will build confidence and self-esteem and raise awareness of stress and its detrimental effects. We will encourage individuals to make positive lifestyle changes and improve their quality of life, promoting positive mental health.
Many of the services provided for young people and children are in partnership with other service providers in the community e.g. Community Education, Youth Complex, Health Spot and The Jeely. Currently there are weekly Yoga classes in most Nurseries, Primary and Secondary Schools.
SCOPE – Stress Centre Opportunities Project
In October 2000 Castlemilk Stress Centre initiated a pilot project, which successfully recruited and supported twelve local people to participate in a Volunteer project. The aim of this project was to:
Recruit local people who, through social circumstances, mental health problems, and/or addiction issues could be excluded from mainstream opportunity and provide them with the chance to undertake a programme of training and personal development.
As well as receiving training in therapeutic skills volunteers were also given the opportunity to attend personal development courses and other courses that looked at for example community issues. There were some very positive and encouraging outcomes from this project with two of the participants applying for further education courses at the local college two people returning to employment and a number of other volunteers providing voluntary services in the community.
Following the success of the initial pilot, the Volunteer Project has gone from strength to strength and is currently funded by the Community Fund until April 2006. The ethos of the volunteer project remains unchanged however it is now known as SCOPE – Stress Centre Opportunities Project.
Castlemilk Stress Centre Choose Life Project
Following pilot projects delivering Stress Management and Personal Development services for clients with mental health and/or addiction issues the Stress Centre now has a dedicated team developing and delivering a range of services to this client group. Staff work in partnership with organisations providing support to give clients additional benefits in terms of reducing stress and improving health and well being. Services were also developed in partnership with Primary Care staff and delivered from the Health Centre to target clients presenting with early signs of mental health problems in order to provide a quicker response to clients needs.
Premises
When the centre first opened we occupied the bottom flat in 22 Arnprior Quadrant. This is a three-bedroom apartment house that allowed space for one office, one therapy room and a multi purpose room that acted as staff room, meeting room, waiting area and doubled up as a second therapy room on occasion. At this time therapies were provided in a number of outreach locations including Castlemilk Health Centre and Birgidale complex.
In January 1996 the Stress Centre was flooded leaving the building in need of repair. The Community Education Team provided us with temporary accommodation until repairs were completed. During this time, due to the determination of staff and assistance form other community groups, all services were delivered as normal.
In 1999 the Stress Centre received funding to expand our premises and were able to decorate and equip the flat above us providing us with a second therapy room, additional office space and a dedicated training room. More importantly the extra space provided us with capacity to expand and develop the project and at the same time allowed us to provide more services in-house.
As the Project developed and expanded over the years the premises at Arnprior were becoming less suitable to our needs and we began exploring opportunities for more suitable premises. In early 2005 we were contacted by Ann Marie Docherty from Fair Deal for 1 in 100 with information on the possibility of available premises in Stravanan Rd. On visiting these premises, although in need of adaptation, we saw great potential and noted our interest. The premises were currently leased by Glasgow Learning Disability Partnership with some of their staff still based there. The Partnership funded the adaptations and provided the Stress Centre with great accommodation at a very reasonable rent. This move has given the organisation the capacity to develop further and provide a wider range of services from within the Centre. We would anticipate the move to the new premises and planned developments will secure the longer term sustainability of the Project.