Publish date: 13 May 2022
The Trust marked Mental Health Awareness Week with a bumper line-up of events.
The theme this year was loneliness and the Trust took the opportunity to launch a number of ground-breaking campaigns/partnerships.
The biggest announcement was its brand new partnership with the football club Queen's Park Rangers.
Mental health professionals from the Trust will be using offices at the club's Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium and working with the charity QPR in the Community Trust to help break the stigma of mental health.
To raise awareness of the new partnership, Dr Julia Renton, Clinical Director of Community and Mental Health Services, spoke to BBC London on Thursday evening (12 May).
You can watch a video detailing the innovative new partnership here.
The week also saw the installation of a blue plaque by English Heritage at St Bernard's Hospital to commemorate Dr John Conolly.
Conolly lived from 1794 to 1866 and worked at the former Hanwell Asylum. It was there that Conolly, a supporter of the asylum system as a means of care and cure, made an influential contribution to transforming the care of people who had been hospitalised with mental health problems. He advocated a system of 'non-restraint' which removed the handcuffs, leg irons and straitjackets that were regularly used in most asylums at the time.
The Trust also used the week to launch its first ever perinatal digital marketing campaign. This is aimed at increasing relatively low referral rates of women who are pregnant or have had a baby into a service, where we know there is huge untapped demand and to increasing awareness levels amongst people who need it most. You can follow the campaign's progress on the Trust's social media pages.
Staff from the Trust were also at the heart of a number of community events throughout the important week shining a spotlight on the importance of mental health.
The Trust teamed up with Cultivate London to hold an afternoon tea for service users at Salopian Gardens in Hounslow. The event was attended by the MP for Brentford and Isleworth, Ruth Cadbury, who was pleased to show her support.
Staff have also been highlighting the importance of connection for patients with different mental health problems across the Trust and these have been published on the Trust's website as blogs.
The Trust also highlighted an exciting new collaboration between Best for You and YouTube on its social media accounts. Best For You launched last year and is a new patient centered model of care to help the increasing numbers of young people requiring urgent mental health support.
In the video shared on the Trust's social media pages, mental health activist Antonio Ferreira spoke with Lucy Presley, Deputy Lead Nurse for Mental Health at Chelsea and Westminster Trust about young people and their mental health, answering their questions around depression and anxiety.
Mental Health Awareness Week has been a great opportunity to shine a light on the existing work between Hounslow Council and the Trust. The two organisations are working together to support residents who don't traditionally engage with mental health services. A number of groups have been awarded funding to encourage access to community based mental health services and empower local residents to stay well and connected. You can find out more about that here.
Elsewhere across the Trust, there was a walk and talk event held at Kew Gardens for service users with the aim of boosting social interaction. Some staff from our MINT teams were also present at West Ealing Library earlier this week to speak with anyone feeling lonely.
Finally, the Trust has been backing the NHS' national campaign Every Mind Matters, highlighting different ways of lifting people out of loneliness.
Check out our social media pages to see all the different content from the week.
