Get Into Reading with Mersey Care NHS Trust
| Pages | 12-16 |
| Date | 14 February 2011 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.5042/mhsi.2011.0053 |
| Published date | 14 February 2011 |
| Author | Mary Weston,Eleanor McCann |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care |
Mental Health and Social Inclusion • Volume 15 Issue 1 • February 2011 © Pier Professional Ltd12
10.5042/mhsi.2011.0053
improved concentration and well-being, greater
personal confidence, and a growing sense of
community. The groups promote meaningful activity
and in the short and long-term, prompt authentic
engagement and provide positive cultural experience.
Eleanor McCann and Mary Weston, the ‘Readers
in Residence’, set up reading groups with the help
of key professionals – occupational therapists,
psychiatrists, and other staff members. The key
professional will usually advertise and recruit the
group, take care of the logistics of finding a suitable
room, and refreshments. The reader brings selected
texts and together they facilitate the group, reading
aloud and encouraging discussion. Group members
are invited to take over the reading aloud, but
nobody is obliged to do so: confidence tends to build
as the group becomes established, and it becomes
clear that no one is corrected or humiliated for
making mistakes.
How are texts chosen? In the early days of a
group, we tend to start with short stories from a
collection we have built up of some two dozen that
have worked well with general audiences. As the
membership stabilises, some groups may decide
democratically to tackle a novel. In other settings,
Every week, in 35 wards and day centres around
Merseyside, service users and staff take an hour
out of their week to read and reflect together
on literature, thanks to Mersey Care Reads,
a collaborative project between The Reader
Organisation and Mersey Care NHS Trust. Mersey
Care NHS Trust provides specialist mental health,
drug and alcohol, and learning disability services for
the people of Liverpool, Sefton and Kirkby, medium
secure services for Merseyside and Cheshire, and
high secure services covering England and Wales.
Operating across 34 sites, it has around 700 inpatient
beds on 13 sites.
The Reader Organisation is a young and rapidly
expanding social enterprise dedicated to bringing
about a reading revolution. We are pioneers of reader
development and social change, making it possible
for people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities
to enjoy and engage with literature on a deep and
personal level. The main thrust of the work we do is
through weekly Get Into Reading groups in venues
such as community centres, hospitals, rehabilitation
centres, prisons, libraries, arts centres and schools.
Through the reading of literature and the sharing
of experiences, Get Into Reading members report
Get Into Reading with
Mersey Care NHS Trust
LEISURE
Mary Weston
Reader in Residence, The Reader Organisation, UK
Eleanor McCann
Reader in Residence, The Reader Organisation, UK
Abstract
This article describes the Mersey Care Reads, a collaborative project between The Reader Organisation and
Mersey Care NHS Trust. Service users and staff read literature together in weekly groups that promotes
confidence, raises mood and helps to develop communication and social skills.
Key words
Arts in health; Bibliotherapy; The reading cure
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