About Suns

SUNS is a charity, managed by a Committee of 12 Mental Health Service Users appointed by its membership.

The organisation exists to empower Mental Health Service Users living in the Swindon area by enabling them to have a voice; giving them the opportunity to express their needs and concerns regarding their experiences of the local Mental Health Services.

 
 
Main activities:

• providing a weekly service user drop-in facility, led by committee members and other service user volunteers, giving attendees the opportunity to share experiences, with learning opportunities (e.g on-site computers available) and generally enjoy time together.

• representing service users on a number of local mental health service committees, attending meetings and raising awareness of service user issues

• training and equipping service user representatives with the skills required to contribute fully to the meetings they attend.
  

• networking with other mental health service user organisations in Swindon

• encouraging and promoting service user participation through the SUNS quarterly newsletter, and website

• encouraging mutual support; facilitating self-help, as well as providing training in a variety of skills including confidence building and self-advocacy for it’s membership.

Experiences of involvement:

During a conference, talking about payments for service user input at meetings, a doctor said to me, I thought you did this kind of work because you care. So I asked him did he do his kind of work because he cared about us? He said, yes, so I asked him should he be paid then. He said yes, because he had studied for many years to give as much as he gives. I told him all the reasons from my childhood, why I had first-hand knowledge that made me be able to give the care I give. But I’d rather have gone to university than to gain knowledge the way I was forced to.

(Written by Ann Mooney Chair of SUNS and published by the Joseph Rowntree trust)

To become a member of SUNS you need to:

• be accessing Mental Health Services - full membership.
  

• have used Mental Health Services - associate membership.
  

• to work in Mental Health Services - associate membership.
  

• or have an empathy with Mental Health Service issues - associate membership.

We work very closely with Swindon Primary Care Trust, Swindon Borough Council, and Avon and Wiltshire Partnership promoting the voice of Service Users in their care.