By media student Elyjah Mcbrine
A community mental health service which launched for Thanet residents in January this year is now due to be rolled out to other areas in Kent.
Mental Health Together is a service for adults (18-65) and older adults (65+). It was developed with people who have relevant lived experience and brings together a wide range of partners to provide a joined-up service.
Mental Health Together is designed to ensure mental health, physical health, and social aspects; such as debt, employment, or housing needs, are supported within one care plan. This ensures people get care that is personalised to them, without having to navigate their way around different services or completing multiple assessments.
Mental Health Together aims to aid all forms of mental health struggles, combining professional care with peer support.
It offers services including lived experience-led workshops and trauma-informed psychological programmes. It also provides help to families and carers who are supporting someone with serious mental health needs.
Mental Health Together is run by the Kent and Medway NHS meaning a referral from a GP or healthcare professional is required. From there an assessment will take place and they will provide a care plan. This avoids waiting for multiple referrals or being dismissed by specialists for not meeting a diagnostic criteria.
Clinical Director of Community Health Transformation, Dr James Osborne, said: “This is such a vital service. Mental Health Together is our new way of delivering mental health services for people with severe and complex mental health problems who are being cared for in the community.
“For the first time there is real emphasis on how different partners work together to deliver easily accessible, community mental health services in way that have never previously been achieved.”
Martyn Cheesman is the Lived Experience Lead who has worked across the Mental Health Together rollout. He said: “A community mental health team might not always be what somebody needs. It might be that they need a voluntary group that supports them through bereavement, for example, or around their personality disorder, that can support them in the long term. This new service will make it easier for them to access that help.”
Mental Health Together has been trialled in Thanet but is due to be rolled out Kent wide from the end of this month.
For more information visit the Mental Health Together website KMPT | Mental Health Together launches in Thanet or via email [email protected]
East Kent Mind
East Kent Mind is a large-scale mental health charity that offers a large variety of in-person and online workshops and activities across East Kent, for example wellbeing walks, anger management workshops and Make, Mend and Motivate Support Groups. If you want to learn more about the activities and workshops, please visit the East Kent Mind Website: East Kent Mind – Local Mind in East Kent
They also offer one-to-one sessions that offer support in self-care, living skills, work, and many other issues we all struggle with. You can refer yourself to one-to-one sessions by contacting East Kent Mind by calling: 01843 319 193 or email: [email protected]
East Kent Mind also offers a Crisis Café which offers walk-in support with one of their mental health workers, this café is open from 6pm to 9:30pm, seven days a week. You can find them at 34 King St, Ramsgate CT11 8NT.
Mentalhealthmatters Safe Haven
The safe haven offers walk-in support for anyone over the age of 16, no referral required, from 6pm to 11pm, seven days a week.
You can contact them via email, phone or in person,
Email: [email protected]
Visit: Thanet Safe Haven, Thanet Mental Health Unit, Queen Elizabeth Queen Mother (QEQM) Hospital site, 164 Ramsgate Road, Margate, Kent, CT9 4BF
(Enter the QEQM car park (Ramsgate side) and turn left. The first door you come to is where you will find the haven. Ring the bell and someone will come down to meet you.)
Call: 07850 655 877
SpeakUp CIC
SpeakUp CIC is a small Thanet based mental health organisation that offers a variety of activities and support groups both online and in-person across the Thanet area, from arts & crafts, creative writing to support groups. For more information and ways to contact SpeakUp CIC please visit their website: Home | Speakup (speakupcic.co.uk)
Elyjah is a creative writing and journalism student at Canterbury College currently undertaking work experience with The Isle of Thanet News.
