Please come along and meet us!
UMHAN members are a friendly bunch – yes, honestly! Despite being an efficient
and effective DSA recognised professional body, a much valued charity, a student
voice in the upper echalons and a supplier of valuable professional resources,
(accessed via our website and links), we are also a lovely bunch of (usually) happy
humans, eager to welcome new members to regular online meetings.
Perhaps you have been a member of UMHAN for some time but have hesitated
about joining one of our mentors’ or advisors’ meetings; after all, they could be
stuffy, officious, academically superior or worse still, people might judge you in some
way to ensure you’re up to scratch! (Well, that’s what I thought before I started
coming along several years ago!) Well, fortunately, we meet none of the above
criteria!
The meetings are chaired by our amazing manager, Sam Gamblin, who, along with
her colleague Rachel Spacey, works tirelessly to ensure that we, as UMHAN
members, receive value for money. The welfare of the many students we support is
our greatest priority and the meetings are staggered on different days/times to be
available to as many of us as possible. Why pay £96 annual membership simply for
the privilege of doing your job?
Meeting others working in the same discipline is an invaluable opportunity, providing numerous benefits including: valuable networking, peer support, inclusion and learning how to better support your caseload.
As well as the regular monthly meetings, Sam also runs Lunch and Learn sessions
inviting guest speakers, mostly with lived experience of various MH, ADHD or
diversity issues, to guide us in effectively supporting our students. In the monthly
Mentors’ and Advisors’ meetings, we are given updates/announcements, discussion
topic(s) for the session and the opportunity for further discussion and pooling of
knowledge in small breakout groups). The latter is ideal for those who find speaking
in larger groups rather daunting. I include myself in this!
Personally, over the past few years, I have gained confidence, knowledge, skills and
a wonderful peer supervision group. Most important of all is the support, mutual
respect, non-judgementalism, sharing and appreciation of individual skills that builds
over time. So what are you waiting for? Give us a try. We’d love to see you!
Avou Oldfield, Specialist Mental Health Mentor