WILTSHIRE MIND – SHORT OVERVIEW

Wiltshire Mind provides a range of services to support anyone in Wiltshire suffering from Mental Health issues.

We provide:

• 6 Peer Support Groups across Wiltshire The Support Groups run in the major towns of Trowbridge, Melksham, Chippenham, Salisbury, Malmesbury, Devizes and are managed by a professional Manager. These run on a weekly basis and provide a safe place where people can share their thoughts freely without being judged and discuss experiences with each other. At the groups they also can gain 1-1 support from the Manager, signposting to other services and we regularly provide activities of interest which often lead to new hobbies and interaction with other groups. At the groups we also provide speakers on topics such as Money Management, Healthy Eating, Home Safety – anything that is required – we are user led.

• 2 Carers of those with MH issues Groups These are provided in partnership with Carers Support Wiltshire and run monthly in Devizes and Chippenham. They provide similar support for Carers, who find it useful to remove themselves from their caring roles for a short time and to meet with others in a similar situation. These groups have speakers specific to their needs – speakers on Care Act etc

• Evening Peer Support Group This is a group we provide from our offices in Melksham on a weekly basis on a Tuesday evening. This group has been set up to address the demand for an evening group. Many are unable to attend our groups during the day time. This group is primarily for those in work who we wish to support to remain in work. Those attending have an opportunity to meet with others in a similar situation and receive support from our Manager. Periodically, speakers and activities will be held within the group.

We support around 110 people per week through our group work.

• Polish Counselling Service A Polish Counselling service is provided in Trowbridge to meet the needs of the Polish Community who often live within Polish only communities and work at premises which employ large numbers of Polish staff. This has led to a lack of spoken English resulting in a barrier for Polish people to gain help. We have addressed this and provide a Polish speaking counselling service which starts in Polish and progressing to English, thus not only helping with mental health issues but with integration into the community.

• 1-1 Counselling Service We provide a Counselling Service from our offices in Melksham and from a base in Trowbridge weekly. The need for 1-1 counselling is great. We provide this service every week day and also provide the service two evenings a week. Last year we found we could not cope with the need and moved premises to provide additional counselling rooms. We have 3 rooms at our Melksham offices. We provide in the region of 200 sessions per month.

• Mental Health Awareness Training for organisations and businesses We provide MH Awareness Training which we are promoting to local businesses. We know that the UK economy suffers £26bn in losses due to time off related to MH issues and losses in output. We again want to work to prevent poor mental health and believe that through our training many staff have received help before they reach crisis point which supports the business and NHS.

• Telephone service Every day we receive many calls from desperate individuals and families. Many are at the end of the road – not knowing where to gain help. We try to see these people for assessments in the same week if possible. We offer our services and also signpost widely to others who can support individual needs.

• Charity Shop In 2015 we opened a Charity Shop in Melksham. This was set up to bring in additional funding but it also provides a wonderful volunteering opportunity for some of our members and helps with their road to recovery, rehabilitation back into their community and a step towards full time employment.

In addition to the above, again dependent on funding, we have provided specific services for groups such as ex-offenders and veterans.

At Wiltshire Mind we do not receive any funding from National Mind and are not commissioned to provide any services in Wiltshire. This means that every penny we need to raise to continue our much needed services.

For more information please contact our offices: 01225 706532 Email: [email protected] www.wiltshiremind.co.uk