A massive thank you from MHAG to all of the people who attended our meeting on Tuesday (December 2) which was aimed at informing residents and organisations about what we do but more specifically around letting people know about the mentoring project.

The pilot launched almost six months ago now – co-ordinated by Neil Ordish of Headgym, Beth Haining of Global Harmony, Elaine Grant from Early Help and Mentor Link’s Andrea Maddocks. The aim is to provide long-term support for people who may have accessed statutory services but need extra support once that NHS input has come to an end. It’s a long-recognised problem mental health isn’t fixable in six weeks – some people may need months or even years to get back to a point where they’re feeling more positive about their life.

Currently the mentoring project helps 20 people – each of them get a slot once a fortnight either over the phone, on Skype or face to face with mentors Neil and Beth – and it’s all goals-focused so each time they are working towards achieving a measurable goal. It’s been fantastically successful and the feedback the team are getting is great – people really making changes in their lives due to the input of Beth and Neil who are supported with all the management of the project by Elaine and Andrea.

The team are now putting together funding bids to enable the project to continue long-term and fingers crossed it’ll be something we see happening in Redditch for a long time to come!

Once again, thanks to all who attended on Tuesday – getting over 40 people including representatives from the police, borough council, health and care trust and many other organisations to come together on a cold evening in December is great and is testament to the real focus on mental health which is being led from the ground upward.

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