An afternoon of music and poetry to promote positive mental health will be held in Barrow next month.
Suicide prevention charity Every Life Matters has worked with Mind in Furness, Bags of Love and Women’s Community Matters to put on the first ELM Café on October 8 at Women’s Community Matters.
Shaun Blezard, Suicide Safer Communities co-ordinator for Barrow, said: “Before starting work with Every Life Matters I was a community-based musician and artist for 20 years, and I have seen over again the mental health benefits from engaging with arts and culture. It was something that I wanted to bring to my new role as part of creating a Suicide Safer community and to help improve our community’s mental health.
“Barrow has twice the national average of deaths by suicide and we as a community need to work towards reducing that figure in every way we can. Every Life Matters is dedicated to having more open and honest conversations about suicide and these kind of settings can help this happen.”
Music will be provided by Matt Kassell, Olivia Dacre, Bethan McAllister and Jonny Swift plus poetry from Kate Davis. Audience members can also find out about the work of local organisations Every Life Matters, Mind in Furness, Women’s Community Matters and Bags of Love, with staff on hand to answer questions and talk about mental health.
The event will be a relaxed affair with plenty of time to chat with chilled background music supplied by Steve Robson from local radio show Space Is The Place.
Olivia said: “Music is a powerful thing. Music is a way of distancing ourselves from our everyday worries and can help massively with our mental health. Music helps boost our self-esteem and confidence, as well as helping us relax in times of stress. I’m really excited to be a part of this event, helping raise awareness, and spread the word that music really is a beautiful thing and can be used in such diverse ways.”
Steve, who is half of Space Is The Place radio show and works at Women’s Community Matters, added: “Music and culture are such brilliant ways to improve you mental health and this event is something I am really excited to be involved in. Many thanks to Shaun and Every Life Matters for getting me involved. I would love to see more of this kind of event in Barrow.”
The café is free and is an all ages no alcohol show – there will be brews, biscuits and soft drinks available.
