Jonathan’s Voice Newsletter September 2024

Welcome to our September Newsletter. There have been lots of activities and events over the past few months, some of which you can read about below. Of particular note is the publication of the Public Guides based on the research of Dr Susie Bennett into male suicide. This research was partly funded by Jonathan’s Voice. We are looking forward to an Autumn of activities and new initiatives.

Connecting with the IP (Intellectual Property) Community… and beyond

?Jonathan’s Voice was pleased to have an exhibitor stand at the CITMA (Chartered Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys) Paralegals conference and to engage with delegates there. Our training requests now tend to be for longer workshops and for direct delivery. In September Penelope Aspinall (our mental health consultant) will be delivering training on “How to talk about mental health and suicide” and in October will deliver a talk to new trainees at an IP firm, both in person. ?

Our online guide for paralegals, business support staff and those who manage them is now supported by audio recordings to increase its accessibility. Listen here ?

We continue to maintain our contact with those institutions that provide postgraduate courses in intellectual property. Graham recently spoke to new students on the course at Queen Mary College, University of London on the importance of protecting mental health.

Line Manager Training

The importance of training line managers in dealing with mental health difficulties is well known and we have refreshed our training for this group. We look forward to delivering a whole day workshop to an IP firm in November. Contact [email protected] for more information about this training and other training we offer.

We regularly post blogs on our website. Penny wrote an article on “Give Yourself a Break" for the website and we were delighted that it was published in the Managing IP journal.

Read the article - Give Yourself a Break

Webinars

These lunchtime events, held jointly with IP Inclusive, are a great way to introduce topics relating to mental health and wellbeing and are very well attended. In September Dr Susie Bennett spoke about “Changing the narrative on suicide”.

Future webinars

10th October ‘Supporting staff wellbeing, mental health and work-life balance’ – Penny joins a panel led by Anna Maloney from Two IP?

7th November ‘Taking the conversation one step further?' Join Barbara Lawton for this webinar All supporters of Jonathan’s Voice are welcome. Email [email protected]

Recordings of all our webinars here

Men’s mental health and wellbeing events. ?

As our charity has a particular interest in the mental health of men, Jonathan’s Voice is especially pleased to be working with Rich Wells (a patent attorney with Tropic Biosciences) and Andrea Brewster (IP Inclusive) to plan these joint events. Each event has an external speaker and an opportunity to network and talk about mental health.

The next one is on November 21st 2024, hosted by Ed Belknap and Gemma Christie, at the London office of Keltie LLP. The speaker will be Dr Susie Bennett. Two more events have been planned for 2025. The first will feature Ryan Parke (www.themenscoach.co.uk) as a speaker, further details will be posted on our LinkedIn page shortly.

Register here

Update from Susie Bennett September 2024

Jonathan’s Voice is delighted to continue to support Susie’s important work on understanding male suicide. She writes ? “Over the past four years, with the support of Jonathan's Voice, my research has focused on better understanding male suicide risk and recovery factors. I've now launched a collection of public resources to encapsulate key findings from this work. These guides explore male suicide risk and recovery factors, barriers that prevent men from seeking help and future research priorities to take this vital work forward.

I hope that these guides can provide practical knowledge to people to help increase their understanding of male suicide and that together, we can build more compassionate support systems.”?

View the guides here

Corporate partners

We are pleased to continue our relationship with our corporate partners Haseltine Lake Kempner (HLK) and Mewburn Ellis ? ?

Graham Lambert Chief Executive at HLK writes “HLK is delighted to be a Corporate Partner of Jonathan’s Voice and to continue our long-standing support of the exceptionally important work that it does.? Jonathan himself was a hugely valued member of our firm and the charity is very close to the hearts of so many of our people.” ?

Maria Hall, Community Champion at Mewburn Ellis writes “It is integral that all individuals know they can speak about their mental health and know they have the support from their workplace. Partnering with a charity like Jonathan’s Voice once again, continues to help us at Mewburn Ellis to promote awareness of this important topic and help us do everything we can to ensure that no one feels alone in the workplace”

Fundraising

Three Peaks Challenge

Roshan and friends completed this amazing challenge in July. We are very grateful for their support and all the effort it entailed. Thank you all! ?

Roshan writes “The National 3 Peaks Challenge was completed by Roshan, Georgina, David and Pablo in a fundraising effort for Jonathan’s Voice. By completing the challenge in 27 hours (14 of which spent climbing, the rest stuck on the M6!), we’re delighted the current/former members of the University of Birmingham’s Formulation CDT raised a total of ￡3,366.60. A special thank you to the 95 donors, which include Barker Brettell LLP and Innospec Inc.” ?

Coffee Morning

Gill Jennings and Every held a coffee morning and bake sale during Mental Health Awareness Week and raised ￡235 for Jonathan’s Voice. Thank you to Anita Grime for arranging this and all her colleagues for their support.

Thank you too to Andy Northfield who donated his fee for work done at the Copmanthorpe and District Art Club to Jonathan’s Voice, a donation Andy has made annually. ? We are very grateful for all the donations and giving the charity receives. If you would like to join the small group who donate monthly, please get in touch with [email protected]