Daventry group gets support of national charity

Unity, which meets weekly in Daventry, has been given the support of Depression Alliance, along with extra support from MIND in Daventry.

The group’s leader Jane Bridges said: “We’re now getting extra support from MIND in Daventry, and the Depression Alliance are backing us too.

“The Depression Alliance run peer support schemes, we were always set up as a group of friends helping each other, and it turns out we’ve been 
a ‘peer support group’ all along!

“It’s good because we are only a small group with almost all the members coming from Daventry and the surrounding villages.

“I think it needs to remain a local group. I think people should help those locally, and it also means the members can meet or bump into each other in the tonw outside of the meetings.

“I guess they like it and get something out of it because they come back every week!

“We’ve also got a psychologist on call as well, and we do armchair yoga and reflexology too.

“In the future we are hoping to do beauty, hair and nails – this is to build self worth and confidence. Also craft sessions, flower arranging, and baking.

“All ladies over 40 years are welcome that feel they might need some support, whether for just one session or longer.

“Just remember ‘you are not alone’.”

Unity is aimed at women aged 40 and over who are suffering with low self-esteem, loneliness, anxiety, despair and struggling to leave the house.

The group was only launched in December last year, after Jane herself found support she had for complex mental health problems stopped due to cuts.

It aims to help women who feel they have no purpose and difficulty socialising because they are suffering day-to-day with depression and other mental health problems.

The group will also be extending its hours from this week.

It will now meet from 1.45pm to 4.45pm on Fridays in the Methodist Church in Golding Close, near Daventry Leisure Centre.