Posted byKelly Johnson

Sunday 10th October 2021

earth wrapped in a green ribbon saying world mental health day 201 on a green background

This World Mental Health Day, on Sunday 10th October 2021, the theme looks at ‘Mental Health in an unequal world’. The aim of the day will be to raise awareness of the inequalities within the mental health system and to recognise the inequalities that are frequent within society.

The Mental Health Foundation has put together some social media resources for sharing with your audiences. View the resources here.

  • Mind BLMK have listed a few ways you can get involved, as well as still running their wellbeing webinars for anyone to access. 
  • Bucks Mind have some activities they are running in line with World  Mental Health Day – you can view them here.
  • YiS Young People’s Mental Health hosted a stand for young people at MK College to talk about this year’s theme on Mental health inequalities.

Read on below to find out more about the Mental Health Alliance in MK and how you can get involved!

Mental Health Alliance for MK

Community Action: MK, working in partnership with other organisations within the local voluntary and health sectors, have embarked on the journey of developing a Mental Health Alliance for Milton Keynes. The aim of this initiative is to help involve the local voluntary and community sector in the delivery of the Community Mental Health TransformationPlan for Milton Keynes. This is a plan, which is led by the local mental health provider, CNWL (Central North West London Trust). It sets out a vision for everyone in our local community to have easy access to support their need with their mental health – not only through the health professionals, but also through their family and community networks. This transformation plan is part of the wider community mental health transformation programme that is being rolled  across the UK – aiming to deliver the fastest expansion in mental health services in the history of the NHS. 

What have we done so far? 

We are in the early stages of developing the alliance in MK and have so far:  engaged with a number of local voluntary and community groups and organisations of all sizes and those working across a range of issues (not only those that deliver mental health services); and agreed on the vision and the guiding principles for the alliance. We are now in the process of developing the terms of reference for how the alliance should be run.

What are our aims? 

The key objective for this project is to work in a co-productive and collaborative way. We want to listen to the experiences of the local groups/ organisations of delivering the services/ mental health services to our local communities and we want to provide the opportunities for them to represent the needs of the people/ communities that they support. The alliance will provide the forum to meet regularly and input into the decision making around what services are needed and who is best placed to deliver them. The particular aim of this is to provide opportunities, including funding, for those smaller groups who work on the ground, and who have not historically been able to fully participate in the funding/ commissioning process. This will include support with applying for funding, governance and accessing the necessary mental health-related training. 

How to get involved ?

We are really keen for as many of the local groups and organisations in MK to join the alliance and help us to develop it further. 

The next meeting of the alliance will be on the 18th November at 10am (it will be an online meeting via Zoom). You can find out more about the Mental Health Alliance on our project page, where you will find the notes and resources developed so far and information about how you can get involved.

Signposts

We have collated a small list of local and national organisations that offer mental health support so why not check them out or share them with someone who might need them! Don’t forget to check up on your friends and be kind where you can; you never know what someone is going through.

Please also see our formal signposting sheet which has a more informative list of organisations and as well as contact details for your interest. Find the sheet here.