The Open Mental Health Alliance was born out of the desire to ensure that there is ‘no wrong door’ to mental health services.
The Open Mental Health (OMH) Community Engagement project, which is funded through OMH and runs from Spring 2022 until March 2024, aspires to take this one step further.
In Somerset, certain communities find it more challenging to access the support they need. Our OMH Community Engagement Workers aim to address this by engaging with local groups and organisations, learning about the issues their communities face, and supporting them to find solutions.
They do this by:
- Supporting the development of new projects and initiatives
- Raising awareness and reducing stigma
- Upskilling VCFSE staff and volunteers to make their services more inclusive and welcoming
- Delivering, and training people to deliver Five Ways to Wellbeing workshops
- Recruiting and training OMH Champions, who represent their community at events and meetings and raise awareness of mental health services
In March 2024, we invited colleagues from across the county to come and learn about the work our OMH Community Engagement team has undertaken, and what they discovered along the way. You can watch a recording of the event below.
End of Project Report
We have now published our End of Project report which explores the project activities and outcomes and includes recommendations on how mental health services can become more accessible. Read it here.
Next steps...
Val Keeble, our new OMH Stakeholder Engagement Coordinator, will be working alongside the OMH Champions and Diversity Voice to increase engagement with the wider VCFSE sector and build upon some of the recommendations in the report.
If you would like to find out more about this work, please email val.keeble@sparksomerset.org.uk.