Blog Archives - Touchstone

Touchstone Named 2nd Most Inclusive Employer in the UK by Inclusive Companies Awards

Touchstone has been named the 2nd Most Inclusive Employer in the UK in the prestigious national Inclusive Companies Awards 2024. The Inclusive Top 50 Employers is a definitive list of UK-based organisations that successfully promote inclusion across all protected characteristics. This outstanding achievement reflects Touchstone’s passion and drive to create a truly inclusive, engaged and supported workforce, representing the diverse local communities we work with. This award builds on

2024-12-05T16:17:51+00:003rd December 2024|Awards, Blog, Recruitment and Inclusion|

Islamophobia Awareness Month

November marks Islamophobia Awareness month, an important month in the Touchstone calendar. This month shines a light on the Islamophobia experienced by Muslim communities across the UK and the globe and unites many in the fight against it. Rise in Hate In recent times, many in diverse Muslim communities, as well as other minority communities, including refugees and asylum seekers, have experienced a general rise of hate, ignorance, fear

2024-12-05T16:17:58+00:0028th November 2024|Blog, Equality and Diversity, Faith and religion|

Evaluation of Recruitment and Inclusion Project with West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership

Since 2022, Touchstone have been working with the West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership (WYHCP) to lead a Recruitment and Inclusion Project. This project aims to improve the inclusivity of recruitment and retention processes in three West Yorkshire NHS Mental Health Trusts. As the project comes to an end this year, the team, Emilie Akselsen (Project Coordinator at Touchstone) and Sonya Robertshaw (Workforce Lead for the WYHCP), have written

2024-09-24T11:43:48+01:0024th September 2024|Blog, Recruitment and Inclusion|

World Suicide Prevention Day 2024

The theme for this year’s World Suicide Prevention Day on Tuesday 10th September is “Changing the Narrative”. 1 in 5 of us will have thoughts about suicide in our lifetime and 15 people sadly pass away by suicide every day in the UK. Each death has a huge impact on our communities and yet many of us struggle to talk about it. Yorkshire-based mental health charity Touchstone wants to help change

2024-09-06T11:37:33+01:0021st August 2024|Blog, World Suicide Prevention Day|

Touchstone’s Statement On Far-Right Violence in the UK

The racist and Islamophobic violence we are seeing up and down the country is horrifying. As the streets of our neighbourhoods and community spaces, our libraries and advice centres, are threatened and targeted, the places we call home have been made unsafe for many in our communities. In particular, racially minoritized people, Muslims, and people with experiences of the migration system have been enormously impacted by this violence. An

2024-08-08T15:13:11+01:008th August 2024|Blog, News|

What Being a Service User Consultant Means to Me

In this blog, one of our Touchstone Service User Consultants shares what his role at Touchstone means to him... I’m speaking from the heart in talking about what it means to me to be a Service User (SU) consultant at Touchstone. As having lived experience of Mental Health (MH) and having been through the system with services since I was a kid, I want to influence positive change and

2024-08-07T11:51:46+01:0029th July 2024|Blog|

Touchstone Secure Number 4 Spot on Stonewall Top 100 Employers List

We are very pleased to share that Touchstone has secured the number 4 spot in Stonewall’s Top 100 Employers list. We are also their number 1 employer in the Third Sector, Health and Social Care industry, and in the Yorkshire and Humber area. In addition to these rankings, we have won a Gold Award and one of our brilliant colleagues has received a special “Changemaker” award. These prestigious recognitions

2024-07-16T12:20:45+01:0016th July 2024|Blog, LGBT*|

Being You Leeds Win Award for Public Mental Health

Being You Leeds, via their funders in the Public Mental Health team in Leeds City Council, has been awarded the Faculty of Public Health’s Sarah Stewart Brown Award for Public Mental Health for 2024. Being You Leeds were recognised for their citywide work to develop the service. This award aims to encourage and promote leadership and innovation in public mental health in the UK among members of the public

2024-05-29T14:56:13+01:0029th May 2024|Awards, Blog|

CREST Service Win National Positive Practice in Mental Health Award 2024

Touchstone are delighted to announce that our Community Rehabilitation Enhanced Support Team (CREST) have been awarded a National Positive Practice in Mental Health Award! They were recognized for their coproduction work in Rehabilitation and Recovery services. The team proudly work in partnership with NHS colleagues. Coproduction is a vital value at Touchstone – without it, no service can truly be responsive to the needs of the communities it serves.

2024-05-29T14:57:49+01:0024th May 2024|Blog, Coproduction, Mental Health|

LMWS’s Health Equity Impact Report

This past year has been one of growth and change for Leeds Mental Wellbeing Service's (LMWS) Inclusion Team. Our latest Health Inequality Impact 2023-24 (see below) lays out key highlights from this year. Read on for an intro to the report from LMWS Strategic Equalities Lead, Nick Burdett. This year, the LMWS team welcomed several new staff members. We have a new leader for equality, a Peer Support Coordinator,

2024-05-22T13:41:56+01:0021st May 2024|Blog, Leeds Mental Wellbeing Service|

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