Our 2023 Forum Adventure!

This year has seen the successful re-launch of our Healthy Minds Forum: a dedicated space for the voices of those with lived experience of distress to be heard by our organisation, as well as developing understanding of structural causes of poor mental health, and more importantly - what we can do about it as a community!

​We've been reflecting on the past year and what an impact the Forum has had so far. 

Some highlights since we re-launched in February include...

• Membership workshops shaped the development of a new membership proposal for our organisation.
• Our Chief Officer presented at two events to educate Forum members on funding structures.
• Two Forum members made speeches at the West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board meeting in September.
• Our collaboration with Accessible Calderdale for a 'Meet and Eat' session focussed on transport, with seven Forum representatives in attendance.
• Deep conversations exploring loneliness and isolation have led to the creation of four focussed action groups to lead us into the new year.
• Four Healthy Minds Volunteers and one Trustee developed their skills to become fully-fledged Forum facilitators, each responsible for guiding an action group!
• Forum members are engaging with leaders of Healthy Minds services (such as Like Minds and CWS) to develop project sustainability.
• We held a total of 11 Forum events this year, with an average of 17.5 people attending each event. 
• 120 people signed up to become Forum members.
• We saw a healthy range of representation from different parts of our Healthy Minds community at the Forum. Of those who attended the forum events, 28% were service users, 28% were volunteers, 25% were staff and 3% were trustees at Healthy Minds, with 14% attending from other relevant local organisations, and 2% were 'other' - none of the above but had an interest in the group's purpose.

Our Forum adventure this year has been a winding path, travelling through what has felt like a jungle of people and ideas, at times not knowing where we might end up, untangling complex vines of understanding to arrive at new clearings in the forest. 

As we have progressed, we have gained a map of the things we have learned along the way, equipping us with the understanding needed to drive our actions going forward. We now look forward to cracking on with our four areas of focus as we move into 2024!

Want to join us? Book onto any of our Forum events on the events page here! Our next events will be:

December Forum:

With a slight change in schedule this month (normally running every last Wednesday each month), our final Forum meeting of 2023 will be on Wednesday 20th December, 12.30 - 2.30pm at Calderdale Industrial Museum. Mince pies included!

January 2024 Forum Events:

ONLINE: Action group 2: Re-imagining signposting and service directories
Monday 15th January, 5.30 - 7pm, online meeting via zoom.

IN-PERSON: Regular Forum Meeting (including action groups 1, 3 & 4)
Wednesday 31st January, 12.30 - 2.30pm, Calderdale Industrial Musem.
AG1: Language, anti-stigma and mental health awareness
AG3: Mental health inequalities, access & transport
AG4: Sustaining peer-support groups & networks


Find out more about the Forum and what we have been working on so far on our online hub!