Some of you may not know that Salford Mental Health Forum has been around for over 9 years. It was started by an idea of a Service User that wanted to make sure that those who use Mental Health Services had a voice in how they were provisioned.
Over the last couple of years, we have gone through somewhat of a transformation, turning from an unincorporated user-led organisation, to a Charitable incorporated organisation, governed by the Charities Commission and our own Constitution
Since the change, we have influenced changes in services, such as:
We have championed the voice of Lived Experience within our role as a partner organisation within the Living Well Project, that will see a new service created to sit between Primary and Secondary Mental Health Services.
Through the monthly forum meetings we were instrumental in pushing for an increase of Mental Health nursing provision Salford Royal Emergency Dept.
Through our representation on the Mental Health Board at Salford Royal, we have been pushing for a separate Mental Health Assessment area within their Emergency Dept which is now within its early stages of inception.
Through funding given to us from Salford CVS, Salford Council and Salford CCG; Mind in Salford and SMHF are working together to recruit and train Peer Mentors with Lived Experience to work within the Living Well Salford Team. (If you would like to find out more about becoming a Peer Mentor, please click here).
Through our Chair, we are helping to influence the inception of similar networks within Greater Manchester including Trafford, Bolton, North, Central & South Manchester.
We wouldn't be able to do these things without your support and input into our monthly Forum meetings. However, behind the scenes, it takes a lot of hard work and energy to maintain the standards we strive to achieve.
We would love to hear from you if you would like to support us in taking the organisation to the next level by volunteering for a few hours a week.
We are currently looking for support in the following areas:
Admin
Finance
Website Management
Campaign Management
Policies
Charity Law
To provide a Chat & Check service.
Also in the coming months, we will be looking to expand our board of Trustees.
If you are able to volunteer some time to help us at the Forum, whether it be within any of the above roles or not, please get in touch with our Chair dan@salfordmentalheathforum.co.uk