FESTIVE NEWS • DECEMBER 2016 • PAGE 33
Challenges facing Mental
Health Charity MIND
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by
Richard Kelly, Executive Director of MIND
I have worked for Herefordshire Mind for 8 years and the change during that period has been
amazing. People actually now talk about mental health and there is a public focus on both
developing and maintaining good mental health (wellbeing) and on campaigning for better
services. So things are getting better then? Well yes and no. Public awareness of the need to
develop and maintain wellbeing (good mental health) is great news and there is now a more
widespread awareness of the “5 ways to wellbeing” initiative and how you can help yourself to
maintain a positive mental approach to life. Public discussion about mental health and the flood
of media attention has also significantly impacted on the former stigma associated with poor
mental health – yes up to one in 4 of us can suffer from it at some point in our lives so it should
be a topic for public discussion.
This has all been great news but ironically this
positive change has also been matched by
significant cuts in funding to provide services for
people suffering from poor mental health. Eight
years ago Herefordshire Mind enjoyed £500,000
of funding from the public sector each year to
work with and support people in the county
suffering with poor mental health. This money
was focussed exclusively on supporting people to
live in their own homes, assist them with the
complexities of financial and other issues and
give an early intervention to stop people requiring
more expensive NHS services. Today we receive
no funding at all for such services and there has of
course been a huge reduction in what we offer
and the number of people that we can help. This
not only has meant more people suffering distress
that we could have aided but has put huge
additional pressures on the NHS mental health
services that are themselves under funding
pressure.
We are of course not alone in this situation,
many charities and other local agencies with
whom we have worked are in a similar position
and indeed some have closed. Poor mental health
is often accompanied by unemployment, financial
hardship, loneliness, social isolation and
homelessness and we have always partnered a
variety of organisations to create a safety net for
the people of this county. That safety net is now
very frayed.
So there is good and bad in the last 8 years and
we are certainly not giving up our mission to
provide support to people who need it in the
county, but we will have to change the way that
we do it:
• We are relying more and more on trained
volunteers who can work with us to provide
low cost services, sadly with fewer paid staff
in our community support team.
• We are modernising services and ensuring that
we do not duplicate work done by other
agencies.
• We are now wholly reliant on donations,
fundraising and charitable trusts to fund
services that are free at the point of delivery.
We are starting to focus on younger people,
where other services are poorest and we see the
greatest long term need. That is why our funding
from Hereford Lions Club is so important. We
want to explore ways in which we can provide
support to our younger people - half of all mental
health problems have been established by the age
of 14, rising to 75 per cent by age 24. We ignore
that at our peril.
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