This year we are once again selling our charity Christmas cards. The cost is £3 for a pack of 10, including postage and packing costs.
Please click on the “2011 Christmas Cards” heading to purchase online.

Bipolar Aberdeen are running a self-help group that meets on the last Thursday of each month, 7pm – 9pm, Midstocket Church Community Centre, 35 Midstocket Road, Aberdeen AB15 5JL.

The group meetings are open to people who have been affected by bipolar disorder.

Bipolar Scotland’s Chief Medical Adviser, Prof Andrew McIntosh is involved in conjunction with the Edinburgh Centre for Regenerative Medicine, in a groundbreaking research project that looks to grow brain cells from skin samples taken from people with a bipolar disorder diagnosis. To read more about this research please click on the following link www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/jan/29/brain-cloning-breakthrough-mental-illness

Attention-seeking takes many forms, and a particularly virulent outbreak appeared under the name of Janet Street-Porter last week.
In a newspaper article she wrote about depression as some kind of trendy new illness, which many women now view as a must have accessory, like the latest handbag. (more…)

The Sunday Mail have published an article about the very positive experience of a woman with bipolar disorder and her pregnancy. It covers the practical help/support that she was given by her local perinatal mental health services.

To read the article in full please click on the following link http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/real-life/2012/01/08/trainee-nurse-s-shock-bipolar-diagnosis-saved-her-own-life-86908-23689029/

The Bipolar Disorder Research Network have published a guide to Bipolar Disorder. Please click on the following link http://www.bipinfo.org

In an ideal world, it would not take a film star to get the media focused on mental illness. But we don’t live in an ideal world, we live in a celebrity culture where Catherine Zeta-Jones being treated for bipolar disorder soar to the top of news websites’ “most viewed”, and relegate Andrew Lansley’s woes or even David Cameron’s pre-election views on immigration.
I am an ambassador for Time to Change, the campaign to change attitudes on mental illness, to break down the stigma and taboo which still surround it. It appears to be having some success: when England cricketer Michael Yardy left the World Cup because of depression, the “pull yourself together what has he got to be depressed about?” brigade were in the minority. There is greater understanding, but still stigma. Some people with mental illness say the discrimination can be worse than the symptoms. (more…)

Information on the 2012 children’s mental health conference being held in Glasgow on 16 May 2012. The conference will aim to refresh and enhance your knowledge on a variety of key topics and current developments in the field of children’s mental health, show examples of good practice and most importantly provide you with practical information which you can apply.

Please click on the following link for information on the conference and booking details – http://www.bipolarscotland.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Mental-Heath-Troubled-Times.pdf

Bipolar Scotland christmas cards (£4 for a packet of 10 quality cards) and 2011 diaries (£3) can be purchased directly through this website. Costs shown include postage & packing.

To purchase click on the Information tab and then click on Publications.

Researchers from Heriot-Watt University in conjunction with SAMH (Scottish Association for Mental Health), are conducting an independent survey to understand employees’ experiences of psychological well-being at work and broader attitudes to mental health and employment.

All information gathered in this questionnaire will remain confidential. Your employer will not be fed back any of your individual information and will not be able to have any knowledge of your responses to these questions. Any information that you provide will be completely anonymised. Even the research team will not be able to identify you as an individual. If there are any questions that you do not wish to answer then please feel free to miss them out and move onto the next question or the next set of questions. (more…)