Valuing shared ownership & lived experience

Harnessing the knowledge and skills of people with 'lived experience' is of huge importance to Healthy Minds.

We began in 2007 as a small group of people with experience of accessing mental health services who saw and felt the 'gaps' in services where people's needs were not being met. Healthy Minds grew from a sense of need for community, creativity and peer-support for people experiencing mental health challenges.

From the start, our organisation was led by the people who used it. This small group worked together to continually identify what people needed, and how Healthy Minds could support these needs with little resource, relying on small grant funding and gradually building a group of committed volunteers and staff. Today, we have grown to be the leading mental health charity in Calderdale, underpinned by our mission to be here for anyone who needs us.
​Although securing funding for our work can be challenging, we hold huge strength in the wealth of knowledge, experiences, skills and passion of the people in our Healthy Minds community - the people who use our services, become volunteers, our experienced staff, committed trustees and supportive partner organisations.

We want to make sure that we all have shared ownership of Healthy Minds, that we all have equal voice in our future as an organisation, and that we remain actively committed to our value of 'lived experience'.

Our next steps
To remain committed to ensuring a sense of shared ownership of our organisation, this year we are:
  • Developing a membership offer so that people in our community can become an official member of our organisation, exercise voting rights and come together with other members to influence our future collectively.
  • Re-launching the Healthy Minds Forum - a space for members and friends of Healthy Minds to meet and discuss issues that matter to you in mental health, looking at what we can do to improve the wellbeing of our communities together.​

How you can be involved...

Co-design our membership offer
You can help shape what our new membership offer will look like, what benefits it could bring to our Healthy Minds community and how we can best get people on board.

Join the Healthy Minds Forum
You can join our Healthy Minds Forum group, and become part of a collective working together to improve mental health services. Got a topic you'd like to bring to the Forum? Share it with us!

The Healthy Minds Forum

The Healthy Minds Forum is a shared space to discuss issues that matter to you in mental health, to listen, collaborate, and look at what we can do to improve the wellbeing of our communities together.​

The Forum began in late 2012, as a new incarnation of the MPower service user group that had previously run for several years. Due to capacity issues and the impacts of the Covid pandemic, we have not been able to run the Forum since 2020.

​We re-launched the Forum on 21 February 2023, when we invited our community to join us to co-design our organisation's new membership offer and discuss what topics Forum members would like to explore in future meetings.
 ​Thinking of joining? Here are some things to know:
  • The Forum is a space to discuss topics, concerns or experiences that matter to you and your local communities.
  • Anyone with an interest in working collectively to explore and tackle issues in mental health is welcome to join us.
  • The Forum has an emphasis on valuing lived experience as a powerful form of knowledge.
  • The Forum is not a peer-support group.
  • People who join the Forum will have a say in how it is organised - we will continue to discuss the best way to run the Forum so that it works for everyone.
  • At each meeting we will re-establish our group expectations of each other, sharing values of: Respect, Honesty, Empowerment, Lived Experience and Shared Ownership.
  • The Forum will meet regularly throughout the year, Usually once every 1-2 months.

Find upcoming Forum events here
Watch our Chief Officer Jonny Richardson-Glenn's recent Forum presentation: ​The Voluntary & Community Sector in Calderdale and beyond: a changing landscape.

​This presentation was written and delivered at Forum events in May - June 2023 in response to Forum members' interest in understanding more about what the current context of funding and healthcare structures mean for Healthy Minds.

Other current engagement opportunities

See below for opportunities to have a say in the health and care sector
West Yorkshire Voice Mental Health Survey

West Yorkshire Voice is a network that brings together individuals, groups, local panels, networks, and organisations to ensure the voice of people is at the heart of health and care decision-making in West Yorkshire. 

Mental health support and services will be the key topic for decision-makers in West Yorkshire at the Integrated Care Board (ICB) meeting in September. To make sure your voice is heard at this meeting, we want to hear your or your loved ones’ experience of mental health support, what has worked well and what could be better. You can do this in several ways:

  • Fill in a short survey to share your story/experience
  • Attend an engagement session on 19th September to talk to decision-makers about your experience or that of a loved one (contact us for more details).
  • Tell us about the experience of people that you have been supporting.
  • Talk to us about your experience as staff offering mental health support.

You can call us on 0113 8980035 to find out more and share any experiences or email info@westyorkshirehealthwatch.co.uk for further information.

Complete the survey here
Leeds Mind Suicide Prevention Co-production Project

This project being run by Leeds Mind aims to champion the voices of lived experience, raise awareness and reduce stigma around suicide. Through their learning they will be producing recommendations for changes in current services across the region.
 
One aspect of the project is ‘Community Conversations’* - led by volunteers, these are co-produced questions to find out more about people’s experience of asking for help, gaining insight on what needs to improve in terms of access to support. Find flyers with more information about these Community Conversations and about volunteering for the project below:

Community Conversations flyer
Volunteering flyer

*We are planning to host one of these Community Conversations through the Healthy Minds Forum - opportunity to get involved in this will be shared over the next couple of months (April - May 2023)

If you are interested in volunteering as part of the project, please get in touch with Arlie: arlie.haslam@leedsmind.org.uk
Engagement Champions Training with Voluntary and Community (VAC)

Engagement Champions are from local voluntary or community organisations, have strong links to their community and enjoy listening and talking to people. Because their role is to talk to local communities about changes to local health services, it is important they have an interest in health issues.

The mandatory training is spread over 4 half day sessions and has 5 elements, including a practical task:
  • Tuesday 18 April – How the NHS works
  • Tuesday 25 April – Legal and Statutory Obligations
  • Tuesday 02 May – Involvement methods and approaches
  • Tuesday 06 June – Equalities, safeguarding, evaluation and certificates

Once the training has been completed Engagement Champions are:
  • Offered opportunities to carry out surveys or run focus groups
  • Able to earn money for their local voluntary or community organisation for each survey completed.
  • Invited to local events where they can meet with the people and organisations involved in shaping local health services.
  • On completion of the training Engagement receive a certificate valid for 12 months. It’s easily renewed by taking part in an annual refresher session.
  • To gain your certificate you must attend all the sessions and successfully complete the practical task.

Click here to find out more.

If you are interested in taking part in the Engagement Champions Programmes, please email engagement@cvac.org.uk
Join West Yorkshire Voice:

In order to deliver care and support that meets the needs of its diverse population and communities West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership (WY HCP) wants to understand what matters to people and communities, where they think services could be improved and what is working well.

To ensure the voice of people is central to its work WY HCP asked Healthwatch (the independent health and social care champion) across West Yorkshire to develop West Yorkshire Voice to feed directly into decisions made about health and care. It will be developed in partnership with local people to ensure it is accessible to all groups and people and is inclusive and reflective of those communities. 

West Yorkshire Voice is a network that will bring together individuals, groups, local panels, networks, and organisations to ensure the voice of people is at the heart of health and care decision-making in West Yorkshire. 

What is the purpose of West Yorkshire Voice?
  • To bring the real voice of people with lived experience and unpaid carers to decision making
  • Give opportunity to those that may not normally be involved and include the voices of those with the greatest health inequalities
  • Form a key part of how NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board and our Partnership Board is held to account by the people of West Yorkshire
  • Connect the real lives and experiences of people with decision making
  • Enable and support diverse involvement and representation.

Who can join West Yorkshire Voice? 

The aim of West Yorkshire Voice is to reflect people and communities living across West Yorkshire. The network will have a database of: 
  • Individuals 
  • Community groups and organisations
  • Existing networks and panels in local places
  • NHS patient groups and networks
  • Voluntary sector organisations
  • Locally elected members 
  • NHS Trust Governors

How will West Yorkshire Voice work?

West Yorkshire Voice will take a whole system approach, working together with local councils, NHS and voluntary sector organisations as well as individuals to ensure that the voices of people and communities in West Yorkshire is heard.
The network will offer the opportunity for individuals, groups, organisations and networks locally and across West Yorkshire to join as members, by completing a membership form.

They will receive regular information and updates about involvement opportunities and feedback on outcomes from previous engagement and involvement.

West Yorkshire Voice will have a core group of individuals that reflects the geography and diversity of West Yorkshire. This group will be the key voice of the network and hold decision makers to account and link directly to our NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board and Partnership Board Members. 

Find out more about West Yorkshire Voice here
Yorkshire Ambulance Service - lived experience co-production event

Yorkshire Ambulance Service has appealed for people with lived experience to take part in a co-production event to produce some guidelines to support call handlers dealing with crisis calls from people considering suicide.
​
The event will take place on April 21st at Horizon Leeds, on the third floor of 2 Brewery Wharf, Kendall Street, from 9.30am to 2pm. Refreshments and lunch provided. Email maria.glover2@nhs.net for more information or to book on. Limited spaces available so spaces are on first come first served basis.

​01422 345154
info@healthymindscalderdale.co.uk
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Twitter: @HealthyMindsCW
Healthy Minds is the operating name for Calderdale Wellbeing, a limited company registered in England & Wales. Registered Office: 1 King Street, Halifax HX1 1SR.
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