Mental Health Projects
In England, 1 in 6 people report experiencing a common mental health problem, such as anxiety and depression, in any given week. One of the main contributors of depression, feelings of isolation, is common amongst people with other long-term disability.
While the growth of mental health problems can be staggering, at Attend, we aim to reduce the impact of these challenges through our mental health services.
Our Befriending Services
Befriending services are regarded as an ‘upstream’ intervention (Acheson, 1998), which through effective social support mediates between isolation, deprivation, loneliness, vulnerability, poor self-confidence and health experience, combating and preventing ill-health in individuals and health deficits in communities. The services help to create healthier communities and to facilitate the right kind of healthy relationships. According to the International Journal of Mental Health Promotion, having the right kind of attachment relationships means that we are more likely to live longer, have better physical and mental health and feel happier about ourselves and our life.
Our befriending service includes a CareLine, which is a telephone helpline designed to support our clients who are impacted by mental health problems and who live within the community. As an invaluable compliment to existing NHS services, these lines of support are an essential outreach to people accessing our befriending service and can help to reduce the number of GP visits and hospital admissions each year.
Our Mental Health First Aid training courses
Attend Academy are accredited to deliver the Adult 2 Day Mental Health First Aid course. Completion of the course ends in a qualification with Mental Health First Aid England and a certificate.
The course addresses:
- An in depth understanding of mental health and the factors that can affect wellbeing including: Anxiety, Depression, Suicide, Psychosis, Eating Disorders, Self-Harm, Personality Disorder and building a healthy community.
- Practical skills to identify triggers and signs of mental health issues, as well as building confidence to support a person in crisis
- Enhanced interpersonal skills such as non-judgemental listening and communication
- Knowledge to help someone recover their health by guiding the to further help.
If you are interested in the course, please contact Catherine Wood at:
[email protected] or 0845 450 0285.
Other resources to support mental health
Organisations
For further support, please visit the NHS Mental Health and Wellbeing site.
For suicide prevention and other mental health support, please visit:
- iAPT - IAPT is a widely-recognised resource for talking therapies and in the past year alone more than one million people accessed IAPT services for help to overcome their depression and anxiety, and better manage their mental health.
- Papyrus UK site
- The Calm Zone
- Mind – a charity which supports people with mental health challenges
- Mental Health Foundation – There are a number of publications on the Mental Health Foundation website with “How To” guides on supporting your mental health.
Apps to help you to manage your mental health:
