News

A project running across Staffordshire has formed a new partnership with NHS Mental Health Resource Centre, Horninglow Clinic in Burton on Trent to work with people experiencing mental ill health. Wellbeing Workshops, is one of 29 projects in the Living Well West Midlands portfolio and is funded by the BIG Lottery Fund and consists of a 12 step recovery programme providing a holistic approach to mental wellbeing. The workshops provide structured and effective self management tools, which enable individuals to understand and manage their mental distress.

The Community Mental Health teams, based at Horninglow Clinic, provide community mental health services to residents from within the Burton and Uttoxeter area.  The Wellbeing Workshops are the first third sector project to be run at the clinic and shows a positive move forward in the treatment of mental ill health. A Community Mental Health Support Worker at the Clinic has been trained by the project to be able to deliver the workshops, offering this service to those people currently in receipt of community mental health care.  Working together the Wellbeing Workshops not only encourage the participants to implement positive changes into their lives, such as regular group activities, but they also teach participants the tools to keep those changes in place.

“Wellbeing Workshops is building its capacity and reaching more people by forming new partnerships with local mental health clinics, like Horninglow Clinic and training their staff to deliver the workshops into the future,” said Mark Lowndes, Wellbeing Programme Lead in Staffordshire, said, “The Wellbeing Workshops step away from the conventional treatment of medication and look at the person not the illness. Recovery is a journey not a destination.”

Now with a trained Community Mental Health Support Worker on site the centre can start to run its own Wellbeing Workshops without the need of the project staff.  This means that more people can take advantage of these workshops on a more regular basis. The Wellbeing Workshop is one of 29 projects in the Living Well West Midlands portfolio that is running across the West Midlands and aims to improve mental well-being. For more information about the Wellbeing Workshop project please contact Mark Lowndes on 01782 206422.