Bipolar support group celebrates 100th monthly meeting

Warrington Bipolar UK Peer Support Group, facilitated by former mayor Geoff Settle, celebrated their 8th year and 100th monthly meeting recently.

They were very pleased to welcome the current Mayor, Cllr Wendy Johnson, who is in her second term of office, and guest speaker Nick Taylor founder of Culcheth based social enterprise KENTA.

The Mayor, Wendy Johnson, has and is supporting several charities during her two terms of office see Mayor of Warrington | warrington.gov.uk. Of particular interest to the Bipolar group were Papyrus UK (Suicide prevention of the young) during her first term of office 2019 – 20 & Pathways to Recovery in her second 2024 – 25 whilst Nick Taylor talked about KENTA, Peace of Mind and well-being.
Geoff a former mayor himself said, “Thoughts of suicide are a troublesome part of living with bipolar but on a positive note I recently attended an excellent Papyrus course about preventing suicide which has given me fresh insight into how to support people. It coincided with the end of a two-year dark episode for me. I am okay now and in what’s called the recovery phase. I am using techniques I learnt in 2017 when I was an over 60’s volunteer for a Lancaster University study on ‘Recovery focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (RfCBT) pilot. My therapy will include running again as I have had both hips replaced recently. I will now be able to cycle instead of falling off , do jigsaws, watercolour painting and who knows a bit of surfing in our favorite Cornish resort.

“When I handed over funds to my four charities in 2016, I asked if I could facilitate a Peer Support group for BipolarUK. Fiona the North West coordinator said yes and the money will pay your group and others’ rent. The nearest support groups to Warrington are Liverpool and Manchester, a round trip of 34 miles, which I reasoned was just too far! Eight years later, we are celebrating our 100th meeting and have 50 members from as far away as Knutsford and North Wales. They join us when they can depending on their moods.”

The Warrington BipolarUK Peer Support Group meets between 7pm and 9pm at the Warrington Gateway on the first Tuesday of each month and it’s free. However, Geoff said when 18 turned up one evening it was harder to manage than some of the very loud Full Council meetings he had to chair as mayor.
Geoff was diagnosed in 1997 at the age of 44 when he was found to be enthusiastically working in the computer centre at 3am listening to the Lightning Seeds. In those days he didn’t have the luxury of online facilities at home. He told his boss that he was to be catching up on work, but his boss thought otherwise and sent him off to see his GP. Geoff returned six months later rested and feet firmly planted on the ground.
He said “I was diagnosed as being bipolar by Professor Richard Bentall at Liverpool University who recommended a classic book written by a bipolar Professor Kay Redfield Jamison which I devoured. That is the only help I received apart from 800 mg of Lithium every night; there simply isn’t much help around but BipolarUK are changing that hopefully through their recent commission.
He says that quite often when people join the group and tell their story they are in tears. Often, we are the first people they have ever spoken to about their condition. Once the meeting gets underway and they hear our stories they relax and often leave smiling and relieved. I use the techniques my mentor taught me at Vertex to facilitate proceedings.

Nick Taylor gave a great talk with lots of sound advice inviting questions along the way. He covered his work at the Tim Parry and Johnathan Ball Peace Foundation, where projects included working with youngsters who lived through the Oldham Riots and more recently the survivors of the Manchester bombings.
He began by saying: “I first met Geoff at the Warrington Peace Centre during a visit by the Oldham Mayor (the first Town of Peace in the UK). A few years later our paths crossed again at the parkrun. He would stand in front of a 3-foot metal post in the park 400 meters from the start. He was a marshal (he has reached a total of 182 times as a marshal) and would wave a yellow flag on a tall stick with 500 runners bearing down on him shouting ‘Mind the Post’.
Nick espoused the health and wellbeing benefits of exercise, running and belonging to a community for support. He demonstrated items from his mental tool kit and talked about nutrition, how plant food had changed his eating habits, finishing off by telling the group about KENTA, his social enterprise he founded in 2022. It supports people and organisations to improve their wellbeing.
The second half of the meeting was given over to the Peer Support Group talking about their personal stories and giving an on how they were and have been since the last meeting. The BipolarUK code of conduct had been read out at the start of the meeting and Geoff still reminded people that “what is said in the room stays in the room”.

The guests were given a small information pack and the link to the BipolarUK website www.biplaruk.org This site has a wealth of information in all sorts of formats. Things to help support members, their families and employees. It includes tools/apps like the mood scale & bipolar diary, which members have found very helpful when talking to their GPs and psychiatrists. There is an online chatbot ‘Ask about Bipolar’ that answers your questions, a moderated discussion forum and an online library of interviews with experts and well-known Bipolar people such as Stephen Fry talking about their lived experiences.
Geoff said: “On average it takes ten years for someone to be diagnosed with the chronic disease. There is no cure and it’s with you for life. Once diagnosed it can sometimes take a month or more for the clinical psychologist to hit on the correct therapeutic dose for the patients. If lucky therapy such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy can be requested but it’s the group’s lived experience that it is not readily available or widely publicised, hence the need for the support group. It is estimated that at least 1% of the population suffers from bipolar or in Warrington’s case 2,100 people live with bipolar and its manic highs and severe depression on a cyclical basis. It’s a bit like riding the big dipper at Blackpool.
At the close of the evening, Mayor Wendy Johnson said, “Thank you I’ve learnt so much tonight both about Bipolar and the work that Nick Taylor is doing. Thank you support group for teaching me more about mental health something that I also share a keen interest in. But most of all thank you for sharing your stories about your lived experiences and letting me know that the Charity I support Papyrus is doing such great work that you can benefit from.”