World Mental Health Day – Celebrating the Good Life Service

A leading local mental health charity, Cambridgeshire, Peterborough and South Lincolnshire (CPSL) Mind is celebrating the 6th anniversary of its Good Life Service on World Mental Health Day. CPSL Mind is marking the occasion by hosting a celebration event with partners in St Neots on World Mental Health Day, Friday 10th October.

The charity will be sharing a new video on the day, which hears from Good Life Service Facilitator Ruth Fox. In the video, Ruth reflects on why the role is so rewarding and highlights the impact that the service is having on individuals in the community.

CPSL Mind is encouraging people to join the campaign by sharing its social media posts on Friday 10th October, using the hashtag #WorldMentalHealthDay #CPSLMind. 

You can watch the campaign video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAU9f2mbH9A

Launched in 2019 and funded by Cambridgeshire County Council and Peterborough City Council, CPSL Mind’s Good Life Service supports adults aged over 18 years old in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and was developed alongside individuals with lived experience of mental health challenges.

Services include CPSL Mind’s community Good Mood Cafes, calm space sessions (helping people find their moment of calm through the use of breath work and grounding techniques), 1:1 support, peer support, and its grant giving Good Life Fund Project that helps to develop community projects aimed at supporting wellbeing.

There are currently 17 Good Mood Cafes across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, which run on a weekly basis (excluding bank holidays) and offer a safe and supportive environment. The sessions are expertly guided by CPSL Mind’s Good Life Service facilitators who help to provide valuable support.

The first Good Mood Cafe to open was at the Art & Soul Cafe on New Street in St Neots (now named The Priory Centre). Local Cambridge-based artist, Roxana de Rond, is working with CPSL Mind to create a series of local illustrations to showcase CPSL Mind's services and local communities.

The Good Mood Cafe illustration (pictured below) is the first to be shared in a new artwork series.

Credit: Roxana De Rond  www.roxanaillustrations.co.uk

The communications team at CPSL Mind say it is wonderful to share Roxana's immense talent with its audiences and it's fantastic to be creating content that feels local. The team look forward to sharing more of Roxana's illustrations in the coming months. It's the start of a very exciting partnership.

The St Neots group meets every Tuesday at 2:00-3:30pm. For a list of times and locations of the other cafes, visit: Good Mood Cafes | CPSL Mind

Every week, CPSL Mind’s Good Life Service:

• ·Supports approximately 160 people per week in the community at its Good Mood Cafes.

• Supports approximately 98 people per week on a 1:1 basis by visiting people in the community.

• Supports approximately 189 people per month via the Qwell text messaging service (via Kooth) which helps to reach different groups of people in the community.

• Supported 103 community projects, as part of the Good Life Fund since the fund began in 2022 and a further 15 Groups have been awarded additional funding under the Good Life Plus project.

The Good Life Service has developed a number of partnerships, including with the Cambridge United Foundation. Good Life Service Facilitator Matt Wright from CPSL Mind Joins the Bright Horizons Cafe sessions to initiate conversations and connect people in the Abbey Stadium. Graham Saint, Men's Health Officer, will be speaking at the Good Life Service Celebration event on World Mental Health Day, to share how the foundation has successfully worked with CPSL Mind in the community. 

Mark Cooper, Good Life Service Manager at CPSL Mind, said, “As we come together on World Mental Health Day, and reflect on the Good Life Service, what has struck me is the way our service has continued to make a positive impact within our communities; be it an attendee attending a Good Mood Cafe for the first time, an individual achieving a personal goal they never thought possible, or an Anger Management Workshop attendee who is better equipped to deal with their strong emotions. I look forward to seeing what we can further achieve in the future.”

Chloe Humphrey, Head of Services, Community and Prevention at CPSL Mind, added, ‘We are so incredibly proud to be celebrating our sixth anniversary of our Good Life Service on World Mental Health Day. National Mind’s campaign says, ‘Mental health doesn’t take a day off’ and our Good Life Service has continued to be a lifeline to so many people.

“Despite launching 6 months before a global pandemic, the service has gone from strength to strength and grown significantly. It is a service that puts the need of our communities front and centre and this is the driving force behind its growth. We have continued to co-produce new elements of the service, alongside individuals with lived experience and this has led to creating something quite unique. A big congratulations to all involved in this service – including our compassionate and skilled workforce, our commissioners, and all of our collaborative partners across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.”

The charity supports people in their road to recovery from mental health challenges, promotes positive mental health and campaigns against stigma and discrimination. CPSL Mind believe that no-one should have to face a mental health problem alone.

The Good Mood Cafe drop-in service is a lifeline to so many people, like Aaron. Reflecting on the positive impact the sessions have had on his life he said, “As someone who is neurodivergent with sensory challenges, I often feel unsure of myself. But Shannon (one of the Good Mood Cafe facilitators) and the other attendees are unfailingly friendly and supportive. This cafe has become more than just a meeting place. It’s a community where I feel safe, accepted, and never judged.”

CPSL Mind’s team of kind and supportive volunteers also support the Good Mood Cafe sessions, bringing years of life experience to the table to help others. Teresa and David Barker have both been supporting CPSL Mind in their volunteering roles for three years.

Teresa said, “For me, it’s anybody who’s lost a parent, especially a mother, because I can speak from that experience. Our role is to be a listening ear and if we can just be that for people then I feel as though it is worthwhile.”

CPSL Mind’s Good Life Fund was developed with stakeholders, including those with lived experience of mental health, and grants are distributed to local groups for activities that support the Five Ways to Wellbeing, which are: Connect, Be Active, Take Notice, Keep Learning and Give.

Small grants can be a catalyst for encouraging people to take the first steps to become engaged in their communities, inspiring them to develop their ideas for groups and activities. The original Good Life Fund offers grants of up to £1,500 and will continue to support projects across Cambridgeshire, Peterborough and South Lincolnshire.

One of those projects is The Armour Project, a self-harm support project for young people aged 16-25, in and around the town of St Neots in Cambridgeshire. The initiative is run by Pennyroyal Tattoo Studio who began the project after seeing people who were getting tattooed or pierced with self-harm scars.

Henna, aged 18, attends the sessions and says they have really helped her. Reflecting on her experience, Henna said, “Just having someone to sit with me when my urges were bad, or after it happened, and letting me talk if I wanted to and without pressuring me was the most helpful thing I experienced.”

Sew Positive received funding from CPSL Mind’s Good Life Fund in 2021 and has now gone on to become a registered charity and has recently been awarded grant funding from CPSL Mind’s newly created Good Life Fund Plus initiative.

Mellisa Santiago-Val, Chief Executive Officer at Sew Positive said, “Congratulations on this milestone for the Good Life Service. As one of the charities supported by CPSL Mind’s Good Life Fund project, as a fledgling community group in 2020, it’s been a fantastic way to engage and grow the collaboration between Sew Positive (UK Charity) and CPSL Mind to help improve mental health in our communities together. I’m really looking forward to celebrating with everyone on World Mental Health Day.”

To find out more information about CPSL Mind’s Good Life Service, and to find support, visit: www.cpslmind.org.uk/how-we-help

Anybody can experience crisis, for many different reasons and in many different ways. You may be overwhelmed by your emotions, feeling gripped by anxiety, hearing or seeing things that are frightening you or experiencing suicidal thoughts. Whatever your experience, it is nothing to be ashamed of and talking to someone could be the first step to feeling better.

In an emergency dial 999.

You can access the NHS First Response Service to speak with a mental health crisis team by calling 111 and selecting the mental health option.

To access helplines and organisations, visit: https://www.cpslmind.org.uk/get-help-now/