Today is World Mental Health Day, and this year the theme is: “Lived experiences heard: real voices, real change”
World Mental Health Day takes place each year on 10 October. Each year it brings us together to talk openly about mental health, challenge stigma, and look ahead to what more can be done to make sure no one struggles alone.
Listening to people who know what it’s really like
Good support starts with listening to the people who access it. By understanding their experiences, we can learn what works well, what needs to change, and how we can provide better support.
Providing excellent support starts with understanding the people it’s there for.
At Hope Haven in West Cumbria, the voices of people with lived experience help shape how support is designed and delivered, creating a service that feels welcoming, accessible and responsive when people need it most.
For people like Anthony McCourt, that support can be life changing.
“They made me feel like I needed to be alive and was worth being alive.”
Since March, Hope Haven has supported 2,942 people, including many who had never previously accessed NHS mental health services, showing the importance of creating spaces where people feel heard, understood and able to reach out for help.
We recently launched our new 10-year strategy, Hope for the Future. We know that to create a future where getting the right support is simple, fair and makes people feel understood – we need to understand the people it’s there for.
We co-produced our Hope for the Future with people who have real lived experience of accessing support, designing it, and delivering it. What we heard shaped every part of our plans for the next 10 years. We heard that support needs to come sooner, and in ways that tackle the inequalities that can cause mental ill-health. We heard that services should be joined-up so people can find support quicker and easier. We heard that we need to be flexible, innovative and collaborative, so we can build and deliver services in new ways.
This takes us back to the theme of this year’s World Mental Health Day, lived experiences heard. For mental health support to meet the needs of the communities we serve, their perspective is vital.
We know what it’s like because we’ve been there too
One in four people have experienced difficulties with their mental health. That means many of our colleagues understand what it’s like to struggle with mental health because they’ve been there themselves.
Alongside their professional experience, they can draw on their own experiences of mental health when supporting others.
Across our community and crisis support services, our colleagues draw on their own experiences of mental health, or other difficulties when supporting others. This can help build trust and understanding, and remind someone going through a difficult time that they’re not alone, and there is hope.
And, it can help us think differently about what good mental health support should look and feel like.
Putting this into practice
Our Safe Haven services provide compassionate, practical, out-of-hours support for adults (Safe Havens) and young people (The Nook) across the North East. The service model, building design and branding was developed alongside people with lived experience of mental health challenges, crisis support and accessing local services. Their valuable insights and innovation helped shape everything from the way the space looks and feels, and the approach people encounter when they arrive, to how support is delivered and how people are connected with ongoing help afterwards.
We took with same approach with our Hope Haven service (24/7 Neighbourhood Mental Health Centre in Copeland). We developed Hope Haven alongside people with lived experience and a partnership of local organisations including Cumbria Health, Cumbria Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust (CNTW), Home Group, iCan Wellbeing Group CIO, The Well Communities CIC, and Whitehaven Community Trust.
From the earliest planning discussions, people with lived experience helped shape the model, making sure that support reflects what local people need and value most. One of the key shifts that we have been able to achieve by placing lived experience at the centre of our approach is the move from seeing individuals in terms of ‘illness’ to seeing individuals through a lense of ‘hope’. This makes a difference as it focusses on the whole person – their dreams and ambitions, not just symptoms or the areas they are struggling with.
No two journeys look the same
It’s important to remember that no two experiences are the same. Lots of things can affect our mental health. Circumstances, communities, identities, and the support available to us can shape our experiences.
Whether someone is accessing mental health support, caring for someone else, recovering from a difficult time, or using their own experiences to help others, their perspective matters.
Our Hope for the Future
As we step into the start of our new 10-year strategy, Hope for the Future, we’ll be working towards a future where no one struggles alone, because getting the right support is simple, fair, and makes you feel understood. We’re committed to creating services that are shaped by the people who will use them, services that will reach people facing the biggest barriers, and make sure people don’t fall through the gaps.
Read more about our Hope for the Future.