Winter can be a challenging time for many of us. If you need support over the festive break, there are places that can help. Touchstone have put together Winter Wellbeing booklets for Leeds, Wakefield and Kirklees. They contain information about mental health support, domestic violence and abuse support, other key support, free community meals, food, housing, and energy support, and more. Please click on the links below to
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.