Touchstone is one of a number of partners that makes up Leeds Mental Wellbeing Service (LMWS). LMWS is a clinical NHS-led service supporting anyone registered with a Leeds GP, who is experiencing mental health difficulties.
LMWS Services
LMWS provides a variety of services depending on what you need, including:
- Primary Care Practitioners working within GP surgeries to give brief support and advice.
- Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners (PWPs) offering different forms of support, including:
- Group sessions for people with mild mental health difficulties, such as sleep, stress and depression, as well as offering options for online support through Silvercloud, which is an online therapy platform.
- Guided Self Help, which is a form of support recommended as a treatment for depression, anxiety and panic disorder.
- For some people, working 1-to-1 with a high intensity therapist is the best option. We offer Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT), Exploratory Therapies (such as counselling for depression) and Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR).
- We also offer self directed online support via the website.
Touchstone in LMWS
Touchstone staff strive to influence LMWS with our 7 core Touchstone values. We also use our wealth of experience in supporting people experiencing mental health difficulties through a social model. This means we aim to address and reduce the barriers and stigma people face in society that contribute to them experiencing mental health difficulties and/or make it difficult for them to access support. We work to integrate this experience and values into our practice and to be Person-Centred and Trauma Informed with the people we support.
Touchstone also employs Mental Health Support Workers in the Primary Care Mental Health Teams (PCMH), and Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners, Mental Health Practitioners and Cognitive Behavioural Therapists in the Therapies Teams, as well as Employment Advisors and Peer Support Workers.
Touchstone also host the Inclusion Team and Peer Support Volunteering Team in LMWS. Read on to find out more about their work.
LMWS Inclusion Team
The Inclusion Team is dedicated to supporting LMWS to reduce barriers and address health inequalities for the people of Leeds. The Team is made up of people with their own experiences of mental health difficulties. They use life experience as an asset to aid their work to break down barriers between professionals and service users and improve mental health services for everyone in Leeds.
As part of the Inclusion team, we have a team dedicated to supporting LMWS to use coproduction. They work towards creating a service designed and delivered in equal partnership between service users, decision makers, staff, carers, and members of the community. The team brings these different groups together to influence positive change across LMWS.
LMWS Peer Support
Touchstone also hosts the Peer Support volunteer team at LMWS. Peer Support Volunteers provide one-to-one support to clients all around Leeds who are currently undergoing or waiting for treatment with the LMWS. Support takes place in person in the community or via phone, empowering clients to shape their own recovery journey and providing a flexible approach dependent on the client’s requests.
What do Peer Support Volunteers do?
- Engage with “matched” service users in person or over the phone.
- Share your lived experience to make the client feel less isolated.
- Help with any homework they may have from their therapies.
- Empower them to engage in local groups or activities.
- Be a good listener and signpost to other services where appropriate.
- Develop the role and make it your own depending on your and the client’s needs.
What are your responsibilities:
Volunteers will attend peer support training where you will learn skills to help you in your role. You will then engage with the new network of peer supporters and staff members within LMWS. As a trainer volunteer, you will develop a professional relationship with the service users, attend appointments with service users and take them into the community to engage with groups as agreed with the client. LMWS will support you through regular supervisions to discuss your progress and address any support needs you may have.
PLEASE NOTE: Our opportunities are for a minimum of a 6-month commitment, 1 hour minimum per week. We also require volunteers to have lived experience of mental health issues or having known and helped someone with theirs, as sharing our experiences is a key aspect of this role. Due to our small team we only have the capacity for 30 active volunteers at a time, and this can limit the number of our training opportunities and potentially slow the process of starting up volunteer placements.
How to Access LMWS
To access LMWS you can speak to your GP about a referral to PCMH or LMWS Therapies or if you would prefer to self-refer for therapy you can do that here.