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Help wanted Are you be interested in helping the authors of a new book about recovering from anxiety? We need to find a few anxiety sufferers who are willing to tell us about their experiences of anxiety and the treatment they’ve received. We will use their stories in our book, as examples of how real people have worked on their problems. We will not use your real name in the book, or mention anything that might give away your identity. You can either write your own story, or you can talk to one of us on the phone and we will write it out for you. If you write it yourself, don’t worry about spelling and don’t worry if it is short, we will still be able to use it. Please remember to give an email address or a phone number. You can email us at womenwhatwrite@hotmail.com with your story or to get more information. Thanks Emma Fletcher and Martha Langley ANXIETY ALLIANCE ANNUAL REPORT 2007 This is our first Annual Report since becoming a Registered Charity and it has been a very successful year. Our initial thanks must go to Jo Brand who was generous to make our first big donation which enabled us to begin our work. Secondly our thanks go to Marcus Head and David Badock who ran the London Marathon which raised well over £2000 for us. From these donations we initiated a virtual call centre which means that callers only pay local call rates to the helpline, and it enables our volunteers to receive calls directly without having their private numbers given out. We have also purchased an up-to-date computer which allows the virtual call centre to be handled by any volunteer, and also enables our Secretary, Sheila Harris, to keep the records up to date. So our grateful thanks to all those who have enabled us to get where we are today. Of course, it would be nice to receive Government funding, but alas this has so far not been forthcoming. Although it has been stated by them that Mental Health issues are important, and indeed they are planning to recruit over three and a half thousand mental health therapists, our request for funding for early intervention was turned down. According to an article in a well known daily newspaper people suffering from depression and anxiety had to wait six to eighteen months to get an appointment with an NHS Counsellor, our are forced to go private. As many as six million working age adults suffer from depression or anxiety at any one time in the UK resulting in an estimated 91million working days being lost very year costing the country £12billion in sick leave and reduced output. Our application for funding for early intervention for anxiety sufferers was a mere drop in the ocean but still it was turned down. However, we will keep trying. Our work is recognized by the MHHP (The Mental Health Helplines Partnership) and NIMH (The National Institute for Mental Health), even so funding is not forthcoming. We were advised to contact all PCT’s which we did do, but none of them have bothered to acknowledge our letters or advise us on what type of help they need from us. It’s amazing when everything is considered, that the help is desperately needed, but no-one is prepared to offer funding! Looking on the bright side though, we received almost £9000 and spent just of £6000, so we still have funds to keep us going!! We hope, in the New Year to have more volunteers on the helpline, which will enable us to keep the helpline open for longer hours, thus enabling us to help more people. Our website has proved very popular, and we have over 200 members. Not only is the helpline itself proving popular, e-mails from sufferers are also popular. In our next financial year we will continue to request funding, both for small and large donations, and we will keep training volunteers. We know how important these helplines are, and we are not about to give up on sufferers. Lesley Hobbs Chair Anxiety Alliance.
