New View project participants - portraits by Peter Hudspith Touchstone's Community Development Team worked in partnership with local churches to investigate how faith communities can work together to raise awareness of mental health issues and to support community members who may be struggling with their own mental health. The project was funded by Time To Change. The aims of the New View project were: To change attitudes towards Black
Hundreds of people with multiple needs, including mental health problems, are set to benefit from the launch of a multi-million pound project. West Yorkshire Finding Independence (WY-FI), a new Big Lottery funded programme, is run by a consortium of the region’s community organisations and has now gone live. The project aims to help people with multiple and complex needs to access the services and support they need to overcome issues
We are pleased to announce the appointment of our first chair of Healthwatch Leeds: Linn Phipps. Linn has a strong background in the NHS, in Leeds, and in patient and public engagement. She has over 14 years’ experience of serving as a Non-Executive Director of NHS mental health and learning disability services, and as Chair of NHS Primary Care services. During that time, Linn has taken a leading role in
Positive Pathways goes live on 2nd April 2013. Positive Pathways supports people with mental health problems in Leeds, working on housing, employment and other needs to help with recovery. The service is led by Community Links in partnership with Touchstone, Leeds Mind, Leeds Irish Health and Homes, St Anne’s Community Services and Leeds Federated Housing Association. Positive Pathways is also the referral point for Leeds Adult Social Care’s Mental Health
Touchstone has been awarded a Time to Change grant to tackle mental health stigma and discrimination in black communities inLeeds. Time to Change isEngland’s mental health anti-stigma programme run by the charities Mind and Rethink Mental Illness and funded by the Department of Health and Comic Relief. The programme is distributing grants to local community-led projects as part of its drive to improve public attitudes and behaviour in
Touchstone are proud to announce their membership of the consortium chosen to manage Healthwatch Leeds, together with Health Together, Inclusion North, and Leeds Involving People. Healthwatch Leeds will be the local voice of people who use health and social care services in Leeds from 1st April 2013, and will build on the work of Leeds LINk. Although our website www.healthwatchleeds.co.uk isn’t quite ready yet, you can get regular updates
Touchstone and the Together Women Project are pleased to announce that they have come together in partnership to deliver a new project for women with mental health problems. The Impact Project will reduce the use of custody for women who offend by providing courts with a credible package of measures enabling the use of community sentences for women with identified mental health needs. Over the next two years, we will
Touchstone are proud to announce a 6 month extension to their mental health partnership with PAFRAS, funded by NHS Leeds. PAFRAS provide mental health outreach and support to destitute asylum seekers from their weekly drop-ins at St Aidan’s Church - reaching many people who remain “off the radar” and invisible to most other services. The service helps asylum seekers with mental health difficulties to manage their mental health more effectively, and provides them with access
Working in partnership with the West Yorkshire Probation Trust, Touchstone is improving the employability of offenders with mental health issues through the Step Change project. Mental health has been identified as a barrier into employment, education and training among ex-offenders. People are often marginalised and can fall through the net. In addition to employability-building, a large part of our work is to identify ex-offenders' mental health support needs and refer them to
About a year ago, a group of people drawn from Leeds University, Leeds Partnerships Foundation Trust, South West Yorkshire Foundation Trust and others (including Touchstone, Altogether Better and User Voice ) came together to think about how Health Services in Leeds could be thought about, designed and delivered co-productively. We wanted to find ways of working more collaboratively - where people who use health services and people who provide those