The East Renfrewshire group will be meeting on Wednesday 23 May 2012, 6.30pm – 8pm, Sandlers Cottage, Eastwood Park, Giffnock, G46 6UG.

The group is open to anyone affected by bipolar disorder.

Please note that due to the unavailability of the meeting venue, the East Kilbride Self Help group will be meeting on the 4th Tuesday of the month in May, not the 3rd Tuesday as normal.

This means that the group will be meeting on Tuesday 22 May 2012, 7pm – 9pm, Calderwood Hall, Blackbraes Road, East Kilbride, G74 3JT. The guest speaker at the meeting will be Dr Aman Durrani, who will be talking about perinatal mental health care.

From June the meetings will revert to the 3rd Tuesday of each month.

The Stirling group will not be meeting in May and June. However, the group will be meeting again from Wednesday 11 July 2012 and then meeting every second Wednesday of the month, 7pm -9pm, Allan Park Hotel, Allan Park, Stirling, FK8 2QG.

Scottish Association for Mental Health (SAMH) have created a survey for people who have personal experience of taking medication for mental health conditions. SAMH want to learn more about people’s experience so that they can better understand how psychiatric drugs are being used and identify whether any improvements are needed.

The survey should only take a few minutes to complete and can be accessed via this link http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/psychiatricdrugs

A public education campaign, National Bipolar Awareness Day will be launched on Wednesday 27 June 2012 by Bipolar UK, the Royal College of Psychiatrists and Bipolar Scotland.

As part of the launch, we have put together two surveys; one for service users & family members/carers and one for clinicians.

The surveys look at the difficulties in making a correct diagnosis of bipolar and we hope that you will be able to take part and further our understanding of these difficulties.

Click on the following link to complete the survey for service users and family members/carers http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/JX6LB66

Click on the following link to complete the survey for clinicians http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/JXNF6B9

Matchlight is an independent television production company led by, Ross Wilson, the producer who made the Emmy winning Secret Life of a Manic Depressive films with Stephen Fry for BBC TWO. The company are now developing another documentary idea in this area and are keen to speak to women living in Scotland who are bipolar and are already pregnant, or are considering trying to become pregnant. We are keen to make a film that looks at this difficult decision-making process and the dilemmas involved. We hope that this would be a film which would help to raise public awareness and understanding of this condition among the general public and would help to support and encourage understanding for women who suffer from it. The production team would like to speak to you even if only for background research. Please contact info@matchlight.co.uk or on 0141 332 0319

A date for your diary. Bipolar Scotland will be holding their AGM & Conference on Saturday 15 September 2012, Menzies Hotel, 27 Washington Street, Glasgow, G3 8AZ.

Further details will follow shortly.

Dr Nick Stafford has written a book, Lithium for Bipolar Disorder – A guide for patients, which is a comprehensive guide to lithium, the evidence for its use in bipolar disorder, its side effects and more…

You can view or download a copy of the book from the following link http://www.bipolarscotland.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/Lithium-for-Bipolar-Disorder-Dr-N-J-Stafford.pdf

You can also purchase a copy of the book from the Recommended Reading list on this website.