Mentally Healthy Leeds, a Touchstone service, have undertaken research into Disability In the Pandemic, asking "How has the pandemic specifically affected the lives and mental health of disabled people in Leeds?" Read on to find out more... This report looks into how disabled people have been particularly affected by the pandemic. We used a survey method to identify ways in which COVID and the policies and precautions associated with
This Mental Health Week, LMWS Coproduction Coordinator Beth shares her own experiences around getting mental health support and how you can join the Coproduction Network to make positive changes to mental health systems in Leeds. During Mental Health Awareness Week 2023 – and every other week! – Leeds Mental Wellbeing Service Coproduction Network are considering our own experiences with mental health difficulties. I’ve struggled with my mental health in
TW: References to physical experiences of severe anxiety. The theme for this Mental Health Awareness Week (15-21 May) is anxiety. As part of this week, Jenny, one of our Peer Support Workers with the Leeds Mental Wellbeing Service team, has shared their experiences with anxiety, how they manage it, and how their experiences help them in their role. My First Experiences of Anxiety My first experience of anxiety was
Our Leeds Mental Wellbeing Service's (LMWS) Inclusion Team have released impact reports on their last year of coproduction and peer support work. Drawing on all their work with volunteers, service users and members of the public, their reports highlight their achievements in improving mental health systems across Leeds and their vision for continuing this positive work in the upcoming year. Click the links below to find out more about
Touchstone have refreshed our 5-Year Strategic Business Plan. Drawing from our long-term vision and values, we have created an updated business plan, containing our current services, aims, and strategy to achieve those aims. Click the link below to find out more about our strategy to sustain and grow high quality support services for those most vulnerable to mental health issues across Yorkshire. Click here to download our Strategic Business
This Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week, our Perinatal Mental Health Lead, Katie, is here to raise awareness of perinatal mental health and help you find support. Did you know 70% of those who experience mental health concerns during pregnancy and the 1st year of parenthood will hide and underplay their illness? This week is about raising awareness, reducing stigma, and changing that reality together. Learn more about perinatal mental
This international Transgender Day of Visibility, one of our staff members Tristan has written a blog exploring the erasure of trans men. I’m a transgender man. Would you know, looking at me? To see me for the first time? Not necessarily. Why? Because I haven’t been on Testosterone long enough for people to always ‘tell’ when they first look at me. But what has changed? A lot. My voice
Today is Time to Talk day 2023. To mark this day, Steph, who works in Mentally Healthy Leeds and as an Anti-Stigma Champion, has put together the following blog. Time to Talk Day began in 2011, when the then Time to Change launched a four-week television advertising campaign to promote its new slogan: "It's Time to Talk. It's Time to Change." The campaign was fronted by a number of
As the Connecting Opportunities project comes to an end, the team have collated case studies of project participants to share. One of these case studies is Toya's journey with Connecting Opportunities. Read on to find out more. Getting started When Toya first joined the Connecting Opportunities project in May 2022, she was an asylum-seeker with the right to work jobs on the shortage occupation list in the UK. She
In 2021 and 2022, Mentally Healthy Leeds carried out community research into bereavement and loss during the pandemic. The below insight report is the outcome of this research. To gather these insights, Touchstone worked with local organisations, including HOPE Bereavement Services and Leeds Bereavement Forum, to understand how the process of grief was affected by COVID restrictions, and capture the experiences of people in Leeds. Our research shows that