CROYDON HEALTH AND WELLBEING SPACE TURNS ONE!
On 5 th January 2022 the Whitgift Centre welcomed a new resident. Committed to improving access to mental health support for the local population, the Croydon Health and Wellbeing Space opened its doors with a goal: to be a starting point for those looking to engage with mental health services.
Whether accessing mental health services for the first time, stepping down from secondary mental health services, or simply not being aware of what was available in Croydon, the Space aimed to make receiving support around mental health and wellbeing easier for all.
In 2020 the South West London Commissioning Group developed a vision of a true partnership in the community and through the combined efforts of the Croydon BME Forum, Mind in Croydon and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust this vision was soon realised. A true partnership in every sense, the Space was populated by staff from all three of these organisations
with a range of skills, including:’’
- CHWS Support Workers, who assist clients in accessing all the support services available to them through signposting and referrals. In addition to our general Support Workers, we also have a Carers Support Worker and a Trainee Domestic Abuse Support Worker.
- Recovery Space Support Workers, who assist clients that might be experiencing a crisis identify their crisis triggers, identify their strengths and effective coping methods, and improve self-confidence, esteem and independence.
- Clinical Psychology, who help clients to identify their psychological, emotional and behavioural needs and help them to work through these issues as well as helping them to learn coping skills and manage difficult emotions.
When asked about the early days of the Space back in January 2022, Tim, who joined the team in December 2021 as a Support Worker said “It was tough finding our feet initially. With a new team and a pilot project, we were going into new territory. We found the first months a steep but welcome learning curve operating the service. Despite this, from every challenge we found a new avenue for the service to thrive and better serve the community.”
Since then we have developed, adapted and grown our service to deliver the best support we can to the people of Croydon. Through making links with other local organisations such as the Department of Work and Pensions, Ground Works, Healthy Homes and Hear Us – just to name a few – we have been able to improve our knowledge of local services and refine our abilities to signpost as appropriately as we can.
Day-to-day, the Space has become a bustling centre for people looking to access support. We see a range of people who either drop-in to the Space, are referred to us by an outside agency or contact us for advice and guidance.
We view mental health and wellbeing as something that is best tackled holistically here at the Croydon Health and Wellbeing Space. People’s wellbeing can be impacted by a range of things, from problems with their benefits or a lack of confidence when filling out forms; unstable housing situations or being socially isolated. These issues can cause worry, stress and other strains on a person’s mental health that can lead to them wanting to access support. Our staff listen to the problems that clients are facing and try to assist them in accessing the support and advice that is most appropriate to them. Whether it is through signposting to a Croydon-based organisation with specific expertise, or signing them up to some of the support we are able to offer in-house, such as our Clinical Psychology Team or our Carers groups, Support Workers will do to their utmost to ensure that client receives the best support they can.
Feedback from clients is essential to us improving the service that we provide and over the past year we have ensured to find effective ways to receive feedback and suggestions from clients. We always welcome clients to leave us any comments and suggestions for us to take onboard so that we can tailor our service to provide the people of Croydon with the best health and wellbeing support that we can.
The future looks bright for the Croydon Health and Wellbeing Space as we continue our mission to make health and wellbeing support more accessible into 2023. As summarised by Dr Kevin Vento, Clinical Psychologist here at the Space: “This is a real revolution in mental health care. We have stripped away all the barriers to accessing support. No barriers, no waiting lists and an open door.”
