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This Padlet is no longer in use.

Find the new Padlet here: https://padlet.com/healthymindscw/forum

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Calderdale Transport Consultations! Healthy Minds & Accessible Calderdale

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Calderdale Transport Consultations! Healthy Minds & Accessible Calderdale

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ALL DATES 2 Transport consultation flyer

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Letter writing tool to MPs - Welfare reform

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Letter writing tool to MPs - Welfare reform

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Join the mailing list or update your subscriber preferences here!

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This is a meta description. This will often show up in search results.

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Go to the meeting notes you want to download.

Click on the three dots at the top right hand side of the post.

Then click 'Download attachment' to download the pdf onto your device.

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Healthwatch presentation slides: mental health services

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Healthwatch presentation slides: mental health services

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Presentation given by Alexandra from Healthwatch at our 25th June 2025 Forum meeting.

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Membership is open to people who care about our mission to improve the mental health of people in Calderdale, and want to help Healthy Minds thrive. It is open to individuals (over 18 years) as well…

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The Power of Peer-Support: Zine created by Forum members!

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The Power of Peer-Support: Zine created by Forum members!

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Lived experience exhibition call out for submissions

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Lived experience exhibition call out for submissions

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Debbie has been volunteering at Healthy Minds since 2019 and has been a true ambassador of our aims and values . W e are so lucky to have found her ! She co-facilitates the Elland support group,…

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Meet Claire, a dedicated individual whose passion for mental health advocacy and fitness intertwines with her deep-rooted connection to the local community. Having joined Healthy Minds in 2017, she…

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Read Healthy Minds Impact report 23-24 by Healthy Minds on Issuu and browse thousands of other publications on our platform. Start here!

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‘Ask the Forum’ Panel Show with Paul, Trevor and Humza

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Tamsin Walker shares some ideas she is developing in her PhD about the opportunities that zines offer mental health system survivors to articulate and share knowledge.
How survivor knowledge is constrained by services

Mental health system survivors are often seen only in terms of our madness. Being seen as mad is linked to prejudicial stereotypes about our competence and sincerity. If we are perceived not to be competent or sincere then the knowledge we share won't be taken on or valued. When survivors share our knowledge, it is often seen as untrustworthy as we are seen as not having authority..

Authors increasingly refer to this process as testimonial injustice, after Miranda Fricker (2007). Fricker writes about testimonial injustice as a type of epistemic injustice, which relates to what is or can be known. Kristie Dotson (2012) might call this type of epistemic injustice first order epistemic injustice, a form of injustice which can be addressed through individuals making changes, without the need for wider systematic change.

There is a lot of research about this type of epistemic injustice happening within mental health services, but it happens outside the psychiatric system too. In mental health services, survivors are disadvantaged by the power dynamics between us and professionals. Psy professionals control who is invited to share knowledge, what knowledge can be shared (and in which way), and how information is interpreted and recorded. This directly affects what can (and can't) be known.

Psy professionals also make decisions about whether survivors can receive care, and what care we might receive. In many cases they can even control our physical liberty via practices like sectioning, restraint and seclusion. Because survivors are aware of this, we often don't share knowledge which we think professionals won't welcome. This includes knowledge that is critical of psy professionals or the mental health system.

Survivors are also disadvantaged by the tools with which we are expected to make sense of and articulate our experiences. This includes being expected to use language and concepts that were created by and for psy professionals, not survivors ourselves. This is often referred to as hermeneutic injustice. Dotson (2012) calls this second order epistemic injustice which needs to be addressed through changing structures and frameworks, for example the socio epistemic conditions and values which foster hermeneutic injustice. Being disadvantaged by the tools with which we are expected to make sense of and articulate our experiences also includes not being able to use creative and sensual sense-making tools.

Not being able to make use of creative and sensual sense-making processes disadvantages survivors as they can help us articulate understandings based on experience and perception instead of relying on pre-existing concepts and ideas (Carel et al. 2012). It is also particularly disadvantages to survivors who may be more likely to think in pictures. For example, Temple Grandin (2022) suggested that people who are neurodivergent often think in pictures (and many neurodivergent people end up in the mental health system). If you think about it, we know some survivors benefit from using these types of processes to reflect on and articulate our experiences - after all, that's why we have art, music and drama therapy.

Similarly, survivors are disadvantaged by the expectation that we articulate and share our knowledge in a single cohesive linear form. Richard Ingram (2016) has written about the limitations of the narrative form to his own process of thinking and relaying his (mad) thoughts. Yet experiences of trauma and dissociation (which are common amongst survivors) are more easily articulated and shared using non-linear forms. If some people think in patterns and spatial relationships, having to articulate and share knowledge in a single cohesive linear form is unhelpful.

Confidence in our ability to make sense of our experiences can be diminished through having to use sense-making tools that don't work for us and being told that we aren't capable of making sense of our experiences. Sometimes this lack of epistemic confidence can itself become a barrier to reflecting on and articulating experiences and sharing these. For some survivors these epistemic injustices are likely to have been experienced prior to contact with the mental health system and may even be the cause of our madness/distress. If this is the case, it seems unsurprising that we may internalise the perception that we cannot be trusted to know or make sense of our experiences.

How zines might benefit survivors
Zines offer offers lots of opportunities for survivors to make sense of and articulate our experiences in different ways. When we create and share zines we may not be perceived as entirely or only mad. For example, when people read a zine the first thing in their head is probably not "is this person mad?". Even if readers do hold prejudicial stereotypes about madness, our ability to know things would not be perceived only through this lens. Therefore, it's likely to affect how our knowledge is received by others.

Instead of a person's authority being reduced to their mental health status and negative assumptions about this, zinesters tend to gain the trust of their readers through creating a sense of connection, intimacy and community. Alison Piepmeier (2008) has described zine cultures as being places where physical communication and connection is valued. She suggested that the physical and handmade qualities of zines invite readers to read them and this creates a sense of intimacy and connection between zinesters and zine readers.

I also think there is a culture of drawing on a different kind of authority, what might be called vernacular authority. Vernacular authority is authority cultivated by appealing to a sense of social trust that is positioned as existing outside formal institutions. In other words, survivor's zines may be trusted and treated as having authority - precisely because they aren't created by and for psy institutions and don't rely on concepts and language created by and for professionals.

Zines are self-published and can be made with really basic resources that most of us have access to (e.g. a pen and a piece of paper). You don't have to be invited to create and share a zine. What you articulate and share in and via zines is not controlled by anyone other than yourself. This means that unlike in the psy system, survivors can choose the topic and the tone, as well as how we structure, make sense of and share what we know.

The structure of the psy system is one in which positions of power, status and financial gain are linked with having access to and making use of knowledge made by and for psy professionals. In contrast, zines have been linked to a culture of exchange and non-commercialisation and are not about gaining money or status. People aren't expected to draw conclusions in zines, they are a process through which people can interact more than a product. Therefore, zines can reassure us that it's ok to share knowledge-making in process.

Whilst the psy system prioritises objectivity and universalism, zines cultures tend to prioritise subjectivity and particularism. Zines are often based on individual's specific complex and even contradictory experiences which it may not be possible to generalise from. Perzines (zines about a persons lived experiences) are the most common type of zine. They expose us to (or remind us of) the idea that knowledge based on lived experience has value and that it can be contradictory or complex.

In addition, zines are shared between communities of peers. When creating and sharing a zine, we don't need to worry that being critical of psy professionals or that the psy system will negatively affect how we are treated in services. We are exposed to concepts, language and ideas that are often developed by other survivors. We can then use these to make sense of and articulate our own experiences. We are also exposed to the idea that we can articulate our experiences using a variety of structures and processes and this might be valued (within the zine community at least).

As a sense-making process, zine making may be particularly useful for survivors. Zines have visual and non-linear qualities both of which may be useful for survivors when we are trying to reflect on and articulate our experiences. This is because many of us are more likely to think visually or in terms of non-linear connections and because our experiences/experiencing may be better articulated visually and/or in non-linear forms. Not only is being able to use these forms beneficial to survivors, but when we do so we demonstrate to others that visual and non-linear forms are available and have value too.

As a form of communication, zines may change how knowledge is received. Zines often have non-linear, visual art based and sculptural qualities and these they may affect and actively engage readers and cause them to receive knowledge in more embodied ways. For example, readers may have to search on the page for information, they may feel confused or disrupted by non-linear texts, or they may have to make decisions about the order in which a zine is read or engaged with.

Conclusion
Making and sharing zines is very different from trying to articulate and share knowledge in services because it doesn't involve relying on psy professionals or being vulnerable to their actions and decisions. This means survivors can (and do) share knowledge and understandings in zines that they wouldn't or can't share in the psy system. Having access to zines can mean having access to a space in which survivor knowledge is valued and survivors are seen as valid knowers. It can also mean having access to a space in which visual and non-linear knowledge, which is better suited to some survivors, is valued. This can enable survivors to see ourselves as capable of making sense of our experiences which, in turn, can enable us to share this understanding with others. Therefore, zines give survivors opportunities to be perceived and treated as capable knowers, and to see and treat ourselves as such. I think this is hugely advantageous for survivors.

Tamsin Walker is the PhD researcher on the Madzines project. She also makes zines, picture writing and graphic illustrations (like the ones here). This post is based on a talk she gave at a Madzines seminar hosted by the Institute for Planetary Resilience and Community Transformation (PACT) - UCLan

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More than just mad: Survivors as knowers

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Tamsin Walker shares some ideas she is developing in her PhD about the opportunities that zines offer mental health system survivors to articulate and share knowledge.

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Read the latest notes from our in-person June meeting.

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Meeting notes from our May in-person meeting!

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Meeting notes from our April in-person meeting!

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See info about becoming a trustee of Healthy Minds ^

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Meeting notes for Action Group 2: Signposting & Directories

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Share your feedback about the Healthy Minds Forum

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Share your feedback about the Healthy Minds Forum

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Easily create surveys and polls to collect customer feedback, measure employee satisfaction, and organize team events.

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Read all about it!

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Catch up on the notes from our first in-person meeting of 2024! 🎉🎉🎉

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Next online meeting for Action Group 2 will be Monday 19th February, 5 - 6.30pm.

Book on via Eventbrite here.

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Accessible Calderdale - Transport session outputs

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Accessible Calderdale - Transport session outputs

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Debbie attended the Accessible Calderdale Meet and Eat on 15/11/23 where we discussed transport issues facing disabled people in Calderdale and the links with poor mental health.

Debbie kindly typed up the outputs from the session (see document)

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Blog post: Uniting with Accessible Calderdale

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Blog post: Uniting with Accessible Calderdale

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Read our blog post about our fantastic session in collaboration with Accessible Calderdale where we explored issues of transport!

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Breaking Barriers: Healthy Minds Forum & Accessible Calderdale Unite to Improve Transport Accessibility

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Yesterday members of the Healthy Minds Forum collaborated with Accessible Calderdale at their ‘Meet and Eat’ to tackle issues around transport accessibility issues and the impact these have on…

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Healthy Minds has been busy working on a new membership offer for our organisation (see the proposal here).

Our next phase is to design how our membership will be implemented. This will involve things like designing the membership application process, creating member welcome packs and making sure the membership is accessible.

We would like to co-produce this with a group of people who bring representation from across our organisation. The co-production group will meet every couple of months to work on this together.

We are looking for a small group of people to be a part of this, including service users, volunteers and trustees.

Please email Georgia if you are interested in this opportunity!

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Please see the attached document which presents our current proposal for a Healthy Minds membership offer.

This was originally shared at our AGM on 1/11/2023 as part of a consultation exercise.

Forum members are encouraged to answer the questions on the last page and email Georgia with your comments.

Your insight will help us to make sure we are on the right track with the development of our membership offer.

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Watch/Listen: 'Nothing About Us Without Us' Celebration Event Livestream

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Watch/Listen: 'Nothing About Us Without Us' Celebration Event Livestream

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Skip to 27:13 for the start of the event.

This is a recording of the livestream of the 'Nothing About Us Without Us' celebration event at the People's History Museum in Manchester.

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Nothing About Us Without Us Celebration Event Live Stream

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Asylum, 'the radical mental health magazine', is a forum for free debate, open to anyone with an interest in psychiatry or mental health. The magazine especially welcomes contributions from service users or ex-users (or survivors), carers, and frontline psychiatric or mental health workers (anonymously, if you wish). Find out more here.

Georgia has various copies of Asylum magazine available - get in touch with her if you would like to borrow one.

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Watch/listen: 'Nothing About Us Without Us' - People's History Museum exhibition

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Watch/listen: 'Nothing About Us Without Us' - People's History Museum exhibition

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Watch this playlist of audio-narrated videos which take you on a journey through the 'Nothing About Us Without Us' exhibition which was held at the People's History Museum in Manchester from November 2022 to October 2023.

Each video in the playlist takes you through a section of the exhibition, showing images of the items on display with narration and subtitles of the accompanying item information.

The exhibition explores disabled people's activism: past, present and future.

There is some inspiring content in this exhibition for us all to consider as Forum members.

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Nothing about us without us - audio narrated exhibition films

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This playlist shares content from the Nothing about us without us exhibition at People's History Museum (6 November 2022 to 16 October 2023). Each film follo...

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Pick an action group - info for Forum members

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Pick an action group - info for Forum members

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Please read the attatched document for information about the planned action groups.

Message or email Georgia with your preference!

(Or leave a comment on this post with your name and preference)

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Liberation: Organisation campaigning for human rights in mental health care

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Liberation: Organisation campaigning for human rights in mental health care

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Liberation is a grass-roots organisation led by people with experience of mental distress/trauma.

Liberation’s aim is to champion implementation of the full human rights set out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Liberation campaign for a human rights approach to mental distress/trauma in place of a dominant medical model.

Membership is free and open to both those with and without lived experience of mental distress.

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Liberation is a grass-roots organisation led by people with experience of mental distress/trauma.

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Listen back: Forum volunteer Rob on Healthy Minds Radio!

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Listen back: Forum volunteer Rob on Healthy Minds Radio!

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Fellow Forum member and volunteer Rob went to the Phoenix FM studio to take part in our Healthy Minds Radio show! Well done Rob!

Listen back to his episode via the link 🎧

If you fancy giving the radio show a go, get in touch at radio@healthymindscalderdale.co.uk

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Writing, music and mental health: Rob shares his lived experience

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There's lots more to see on our Padlet!
👉🏽 Scroll across to see more posts in a section
👇🏽 Scroll down to see more sections

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Blog post: Forum Members speak at West Yorkshire ICB event

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Blog post: Forum Members speak at West Yorkshire ICB event

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Healthy Minds Forum Members Advocate for Mental Health at WYICB Engagement Session

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On Tuesday 19 September, f our members of the Healthy Minds Forum travelled to the LIFE Centre in Bradford to have their voices heard by key West Yorkshire NHS decision-makers . Link…

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Accessible Calderdale & Disability Access Forum

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Accessible Calderdale & Disability Access Forum

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For those interested in advocating for better accessibility in Calderdale, including issues such as transport, green spaces, health and wellbeing, and taking part in co-production of planning projects in Calderdale.

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The Accessible Calderdale Project, commenced in 2018 with the aim to reduce inequality, remove barriers, promote inclusion and improve access to our local community and visitors, enabling all people to have equal opportunities, make a positive contribution and lead purposeful lives.

"We aim to create choices and a more cohesive community where everyone has the opportunity to interact and play an equal part in society."

You can keep up to date with the Accessible Calderdale Project on our Facebook page.

Our Aims and Objectives

Working in co-production with our Accessible Calderdale Disability Forum, we work towards removing both the physical and non-physical barriers to inclusion by:

Raising awareness and changing attitudes towards disabled people to enable positive interaction in everyday life

Promoting accessible venues, places of interest, green spaces, new builds & regeneration projects

Disability equality and customer service training

Working collaboratively with key organisations

Co-production/Partnerships

A co-production and partnership approach is central to our work. We work closely with a wide range of colleagues from key organisations and stakeholders including Calderdale Council Visit Calderdale, Visit Hebden and Visit Todmorden to improve the accessibility of information provided on their websites, to ensure that there are up to date access statements, and that all venues, businesses and organisations are able to have access audits.

We encourage disabled people to review local places and for this to be used on Visit Calderdale website.

The Calderdale Tourism Stakeholder Group

We have taken the lead in bringing together the Calderdale tourism stakeholder group which represents a wide range of key personnel from the hospitality industry: the arts, leisure centres tourist offices, Northern Rail, National Trust, Halifax BID, and our larger tourist venues such as Piece Hall, Eureka, Shibden Hall and Square Chapel, museums, greenspaces, countryside and parks.

We know how important tourism is to our local economy and how the Purple Pound is a driving force in building a strong local economy. The spending power of disabled people and their families is £274Bn a year and we want Calderdale to be able to tap into this money to make improvements for everyone. We aim to boost tourism, bolster the local economy, break down barriers and create a welcoming place for those who live, work, study and visit Calderdale. We want people to spend their money here and stay longer, and to spread the word that Calderdale is an outstanding Accessible Destination that celebrates diverse tourism.

Accessible Transport Group

Our Accessible Transport Group works in co-production with the local authority and West Yorkshire Combined Authority and is an integral part in the tourism offer. There are a lot of changes and increased access issues happening in the next year for which our group is essential.

Accessible Countryside and Green Spaces Group

Our Accessible Countryside and Greenspaces Group are actively involved with Calderdale Council and Active Calderdale in looking at the physical barriers to accessing in our local areas. Disabled people have told us that due to lack of access they tend to visit other regions. Often disabled people have little choice in where they visit and often struggle to leave their own homes due to poor pavements, no drop kerbs and lack of accessible routes.

Training

We have developed a local training package available to all businesses and organisations to create an accessible, positive and welcoming visitor experience for those from outside our area and local people. We want venues and attractions to feel confident in communicating with disabled people and that they will offer excellent customer service to all visitors so they return to our region.

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The Accessible Calderdale project - Visits Unlimited

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The Accessible Calderdale Project, commenced in 2018 with the aim to reduce inequality, remove barriers, promote inclusion and improve access to our local community and visitors, enabling all people to have equal opportunities, make a positive contribution and lead purposeful lives. "We aim to create choices and a more cohesive community where everyone has the [...]

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Routledge International Handbook of Mad Studies

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Routledge International Handbook of Mad Studies

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Mad Studies is a field of scholarship that brings together theory, activism and creativity, drawing on the lived experiences, thinking, history and politics of people who variously identify as mad, psychiatric survivors, mental health consumers/service users/patients, voice hearers, plural/multiple, neurodiverse, and/or disabled (this list is always expanding).

Mad Studies has strong connections with grassroots movements fighting for the rights of people labelled as “mentally ill,” as well as intersecting social justice movements. The field is indebted to pioneering work (from the early 2000s) at Ryerson and York Universities in Canada, and to related disciplines, such as Critical Disability Studies, women’s studies, queer theory and critical mental health.

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The politics of service user labour - educational zine

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The politics of service user labour - educational zine

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"The Politics of Service User Labour talks about issues that

concern service users/survivors who perform different kinds

of labour (paid and unpaid) in the mental health sector.

These issues are part of the legacy of patient labour in the

psychiatric system."

"Service user labour is political. Everything that happens in

relation to it, whether in paid or volunteer work, has social

and economic contexts. Itʼs grounded in a long history of

institutional power."

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A network of people in the UK promoting the development of drug-free and minimum medication therapeutic environments for people experiencing ‘psychosis’ or extreme states. We are part of an international movement of service users, survivors, activists, carers and professionals fighting for more humane, non-coercive mental health services.

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I've just looked at the notice for this conference and it looks to be inspiring and richly informative, in a fittingly wonderful venue! Here is the link to the programme: Coming Home to Ourselves - Nov 2022 - Compassionate Mental...

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Soteria Network - Humane, non-coercive mental health services

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Soteria Network promotes the development of drug-free and minimum medication therapeutic environments for people experiencing 'psychosis' or extreme states.

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Soteria Network UK - information booklet

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Soteria Network UK - information booklet

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At our meeting on 30th August 2023 we heard from Tom Griffiths, Soteria UK board member.

See here a pdf of the booklet about the Soteria Network that was shared at the meeting.

"A network of people in the UK promoting the development of drug-free and minimum medication therapeutic support for people experiencing ‘psychosis’ "

"Part of an international movement of service users, survivors, activists, carers and professionals fighting for more humane, non-coercive mental health services"

For more information about the Soteria Yorkshire group, please email info@soterianetwork.org.uk

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This research project explores how Zines ‘craft contention’ about mental health – and can help to turn individual struggles into critical issues for society.

Tamsin, Healthy Minds Forum member, is part of this project and encourages anyone inspired to make their own zine get in touch with the project! (See contact page on the website)

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This new research project explores how Zines 'craft contention' about mental health - and can help to turn individual struggles into critical issues for society (and mental health services).

We have been identifying, analysing and co-producing a diverse range of what we collectively refer to as MadZines.
Read our blog posts and see what else we have been producing.
We are interested in the potential of MadZines to challenge prevailing psychological, psychiatric and medical understandings, diagnoses and treatments.

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Every couple of years, Healthy Minds ask people who are involved with them to complete a survey to help gain an understanding of who they support, what difference it makes and what people think of Healthy Minds as an organisation.

Read more on the Healthy Minds blog here.

Huge thanks to everyone who participated in this year's census! Your responses are a vital compass guiding us to enhance our efforts and bring about impactful transformations.

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Healthy Minds Census - insights infographic

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Healthy Minds Census - insights infographic

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Here you can see a snapshot of the insights revealed through our recent Healthy Minds Census.

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Patient Participation Groups at GP Practices

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Patient Participation Groups at GP Practices

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It was raised in our meeting on 26/7/23 that Patient Participation Groups at local GP practices were a way of having a say in how services at GPs can be improved.

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If you are looking to get involved in shaping health services locally, here are some of the ways you can do this.

Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs)

CCGs plan and buy the majority of local healthcare services for people in your area, including those provided in hospitals and community settings. Your CCG may have a number of ways that you can get involved locally, from representing the patient voice on the CCG governing body to sharing your experiences of local health services.

If you want to get involved contact your local CCG for more information.

Patient Participation Group (PPG)

Every GP practice should have a PPG. It will be made up of patients and carers the practice manager and one or more GPs. PPGs meet on a regular basis to discuss the services on offer at the practice and how they can be improved.

If you would like to be part of your local PPG your GP practice will be able to tell you how you can get involved. The National Association of Patient Participation also provides information about the role of PPGs and how to get involved.

Your local hospital trust

Most hospital trusts have a range of opportunities to get involved, such as citizen membership, patient groups or volunteering on hospital wards. You can contact your local hospital trust and ask them how to get involved in their work. You can find contact details for your local hospital on the NHS website.

Dental, pharmacy and optometry (eye health) services Local Professional Networks

Patients and the public can be members of local professional networks (LPNs). These bring together partners to improve local dental, community pharmacy and optometry (eye health) services and ensure that they are well connected with other services. You can find out more about your local LPN on the NHS England website.

Local Health and Wellbeing Boards

These boards review current and future health and social care needs of local people and recommend health and care priorities for action on this basis. Membership includes local CCGs, the local authority (council) and local Healthwatch. Charity and community groups may also work with Health and Wellbeing boards to represent the views of people in the area. Your local authority will be able to provide you with details about the work of your Health and Wellbeing board.

Maternity Voices Partnerships

If you are interested in shaping local maternity services, you are able to join your local Maternity Voices Partnership as a service user representative. Maternity Voices Partnerships are multi-disciplinary, NHS advisory teams of users and user representatives, maternity staff and commissioners, who work together to review and contribute to the development of local maternity services. Maternity Voices Partnerships can facilitate co-production of maternity services with the people who use them. You can find your nearest Maternity Voices Partnership by going to the National Maternity Voices website.

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If you are looking to get involved in shaping health services locally, here are some of the ways you can do this. CCGs plan and buy the majority of local healthcare services for people in your area, including those provided in hospitals and community settings.

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Harnessing the knowledge and skills of people with 'lived experience' is of huge importance to Healthy Minds.

We began in 2007 as a small group of people with experience of accessing mental health services who saw and felt the 'gaps' in services where people's needs were not being met. Healthy Minds grew from a sense of need for community, creativity and peer-support for people experiencing mental health challenges.

From the start, our organisation was led by the people who used it. This small group worked together to continually identify what people needed, and how Healthy Minds could support these needs with little resource, relying on small grant funding and gradually building a group of committed volunteers and staff. Today, we have grown to be the leading mental health charity in Calderdale, underpinned by our mission to be here for anyone who needs us.

To remain committed to ensuring a sense of shared ownership of our organisation, this year we are:

Developing a membership offer so that people in our community can become an official member of our organisation, exercise voting rights and come together with other members to influence our future collectively.

Re-launching the Healthy Minds Forum - a space for members and friends of Healthy Minds to meet and discuss issues that matter to you in mental health, looking at what we can do to improve the wellbeing of our communities together.​

We re-launched the Forum on 21 February 2023, when we invited our community to join us to co-design our organisation's new membership offer and discuss what topics Forum members would like to explore in future meetings. ​

Thinking of joining? Here are some things to know:

The Forum is a space to discuss topics, concerns or experiences that matter to you and your local communities.

Anyone with an interest in working collectively to explore and tackle issues in mental health is welcome to join us.

The Forum has an emphasis on valuing lived experience as a powerful form of knowledge.

The Forum is not a peer-support group.

People who join the Forum will have a say in how it is organised - we will continue to discuss the best way to run the Forum so that it works for everyone.

At each meeting we will re-establish our group expectations of each other, sharing values of: Respect, Honesty, Empowerment, Lived Experience and Shared Ownership.

The Forum will meet regularly throughout the year, Usually once every 1-2 months.

Find upcoming Forum events here See below for opportunities to have a say in the health and care sector West Yorkshire Voice Mental Health Survey
West Yorkshire Voice is a network that brings together individuals, groups, local panels, networks, and organisations to ensure the voice of people is at the heart of health and care decision-making in West Yorkshire.

Mental health support and services will be the key topic for decision-makers in West Yorkshire at the Integrated Care Board (ICB) meeting in September. To make sure your voice is heard at this meeting, we want to hear your or your loved ones' experience of mental health support, what has worked well and what could be better. You can do this in several ways:

Fill in a short survey to share your story/experience

Attend an engagement session on 19th September to talk to decision-makers about your experience or that of a loved one (contact us for more details).

Tell us about the experience of people that you have been supporting.

Talk to us about your experience as staff offering mental health support.

You can call us on 0113 8980035 to find out more and share any experiences or email info@westyorkshirehealthwatch.co.uk Leeds Mind Suicide Prevention Co-production Project
This project being run by Leeds Mind aims to champion the voices of lived experience, raise awareness and reduce stigma around suicide. Through their learning they will be producing recommendations for changes in current services across the region.

One aspect of the project is 'Community Conversations'* - led by volunteers, these are co-produced questions to find out more about people's experience of asking for help, gaining insight on what needs to improve in terms of access to support. Find flyers with more information about these Community Conversations and about volunteering for the project below:
Community Conversations flyer*We are planning to host one of these Community Conversations through the Healthy Minds Forum - opportunity to get involved in this will be shared over the next couple of months (April - May 2023)
Engagement Champions Training with Voluntary and Community (VAC) Volunteering flyer
If you are interested in volunteering as part of the project , please get in touch with Arlie: arlie.haslam@leedsmind.org.uk

Engagement Champions are from local voluntary or community organisations, have strong links to their community and enjoy listening and talking to people. Because their role is to talk to local communities about changes to local health services, it is important they have an interest in health issues.
Join West Yorkshire Voice:
The mandatory training is spread over 4 half day sessions and has 5 elements, including a practical task:

Tuesday 18 April - How the NHS works

Tuesday 25 April - Legal and Statutory Obligations

Tuesday 02 May - Involvement methods and approaches

Tuesday 06 June - Equalities, safeguarding, evaluation and certificates

Once the training has been completed Engagement Champions are:

Offered opportunities to carry out surveys or run focus groups

Able to earn money for their local voluntary or community organisation for each survey completed.

Invited to local events where they can meet with the people and organisations involved in shaping local health services.

On completion of the training Engagement receive a certificate valid for 12 months. It's easily renewed by taking part in an annual refresher session.

To gain your certificate you must attend all the sessions and successfully complete the practical task.

Click here to find out more.
If you are interested in taking part in the Engagement Champions Programmes, please email engagement@cvac.org.uk

In order to deliver care and support that meets the needs of its diverse population and communities West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership (WY HCP) wants to understand what matters to people and communities, where they think services could be improved and what is working well.
What is the purpose of West Yorkshire Voice?

To bring the real voice of people with lived experience and unpaid carers to decision making

Give opportunity to those that may not normally be involved and include the voices of those with the greatest health inequalities

Form a key part of how NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board and our Partnership Board is held to account by the people of West Yorkshire

Connect the real lives and experiences of people with decision making

Enable and support diverse involvement and representation.

Who can join West Yorkshire Voice?
To ensure the voice of people is central to its work WY HCP asked Healthwatch (the independent health and social care champion) across West Yorkshire to develop West Yorkshire Voice to feed directly into decisions made about health and care. It will be developed in partnership with local people to ensure it is accessible to all groups and people and is inclusive and reflective of those communities.
Find out more about West Yorkshire Voice here Yorkshire Ambulance Service - lived experience co-production event
West Yorkshire Voice is a network that will bring together individuals, groups, local panels, networks, and organisations to ensure the voice of people is at the heart of health and care decision-making in West Yorkshire.

The aim of West Yorkshire Voice is to reflect people and communities living across West Yorkshire. The network will have a database of:

Individuals

Community groups and organisations

Existing networks and panels in local places

NHS patient groups and networks

Voluntary sector organisations

Locally elected members

NHS Trust Governors

How will West Yorkshire Voice work?
West Yorkshire Voice will take a whole system approach, working together with local councils, NHS and voluntary sector organisations as well as individuals to ensure that the voices of people and communities in West Yorkshire is heard.
The network will offer the opportunity for individuals, groups, organisations and networks locally and across West Yorkshire to join as members, by completing a membership form.

They will receive regular information and updates about involvement opportunities and feedback on outcomes from previous engagement and involvement.

West Yorkshire Voice will have a core group of individuals that reflects the geography and diversity of West Yorkshire. This group will be the key voice of the network and hold decision makers to account and link directly to our NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board and Partnership Board Members.

Yorkshire Ambulance Service has appealed for people with lived experience to take part in a co-production event to produce some guidelines to support call handlers dealing with crisis calls from people considering suicide.
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The event will take place on April 21st at Horizon Leeds, on the third floor of 2 Brewery Wharf, Kendall Street, from 9.30am to 2pm. Refreshments and lunch provided. Email maria.glover2@nhs.net for more information or to book on. Limited spaces available so spaces are on first come first served basis.

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Harnessing the knowledge and skills of people with 'lived experience' is of huge importance to Healthy Minds. We began in 2007 as a small group of people with experience of accessing mental health...

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West Yorkshire Voice: What is it and becoming a member

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West Yorkshire Voice: What is it and becoming a member

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Click on the link to find out more about West Yorkshire Voice - the West Yorkshire-wide network that aims to put the voices of people at the heart of health and care decision making.

Healthy Minds is a member organisation, but you can become an individual member too - find out how on the webpage.

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Click here to view the most recent West Yorkshire Voice Newsletter
Over the last few years health and care services have increasingly worked together to provide better care and support for people. This way of working led to something called integrated care systems being set up in local areas. The aim of these new systems is to deliver joined-up support that better meets the needs of the population.

The West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership is one of 42 integrated care systems (ICSs) in England. ICSs are partnerships of organisations that come together to plan and deliver joined up health and care services, and to improve the lives of people and communities who live and work in their area.

To deliver care and support that meets the needs of people and communities we want to understand what matters to them, where they think services could be improved and what is working well.

As a Partnership we have asked Healthwatch (the independent health and social care champion) across West Yorkshire to develop a network of people, groups and organisations to feed directly into decisions about health and care. The network is called West Yorkshire Voice and will be developed in partnership with local people to ensure it is accessible to all groups of people and is inclusive and reflective of our communities.

Sharanjit Boughan, West Yorkshire Healthwatch said: "Ensuring diverse voices are heard from across the area is essential to help health and care services meet the needs of all our communities. We especially want to hear the voices of those who experience the greatest health inequalities and who we might not usually hear from. Please come forward and get involved".

Cathy Elliott, Chair of the NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board said: "As the independent champion for anyone using health and care services, Healthwatch is a key partner within WY HCP and ideally placed to do this essential work on our behalf. We really want to reach as many people as possible, so that we can make sure people's feedback and experiences of local services are heard at the highest level. This is ultimately all about making the right decisions and ones that make a positive difference to everyone's lives".

What is West Yorkshire Voice?

West Yorkshire Voice is a network that will bring together individuals, groups, local panels, networks, and organisations to ensure the voice of people is at the heart of health and care decision-making in West Yorkshire.

The network will complement existing engagement and involvement mechanisms that are already in place at a local level in Bradford District and Craven, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield District. It will be a new way of working with people, communities and organisations that will not replace or duplicate what is already taking place locally. West Yorkshire Voice will add to and build on those existing structures and what we know already.

What is the purpose of West Yorkshire Voice?

To bring the real voice of people with lived experience and unpaid carers to decision making

Give opportunity to those that may not normally be involved and include the voices of those with the greatest health inequalities

Form a key part of how NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board and our Partnership Board is held to account by the people of West Yorkshire

Connect the real lives and experiences of people with decision making

Enable and support diverse involvement and representation.

Who can join West Yorkshire Voice?

The aim of West Yorkshire Voice is to reflect people and communities living across West Yorkshire.

The network will have a database of:

Individuals

Community groups and organisations

Existing networks and panels in local places

NHS patient groups and networks

Voluntary sector organisations

Locally elected members

NHS Trust Governors

How will West Yorkshire Voice work?

West Yorkshire Voice will take a whole system approach, working together with local councils, NHS and voluntary sector organisations as well as individuals to ensure that the voices of people and communities in West Yorkshire is heard.

The network will offer the opportunity for individuals, groups, organisations and networks locally and across West Yorkshire to join as members, by completing a membership form. They will recieve regular information and updates about involvement opportunities and feedback on outcomes from previous engagement and involvement.

West Yorkshire Voice will have a core group of individuals that reflects the geography and diversity of West Yorkshire. This group will be the key voice of the network and hold decision makers to account and link directly to our NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board and Partnership Board Members.

What next?

To find out more or join West Yorkshire Voice you can either:

Resources to help publicise West Yorkshire Voice

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Click here to view the most recent West Yorkshire Voice Newsletter Over the last few years health and care services have increasingly worked together to provide better care and support for people. This way of working led to something called integrated care systems being set up in local areas.

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Calderdale Cares Partnership: Ways to get involved

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Calderdale Cares Partnership: Ways to get involved

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Calderdale Cares Partnership (CCP)are responsible for arranging and delivering health and care services for the 206,600 people who live in Calderdale.

They work to improve the health and wellbeing of local people. By working together, partners aim to reduce health inequalities and deliver joined up health, support, and community care for the people of Calderdale.

They are a partnership of local organisations representing the NHS, local government, Healthwatch and the community and voluntary sector in Calderdale.

Click the link to see ways you can get involved including:
- Engagement Champions
- Patient Participation Groups
- The Involving People Network
- Attending Calderdale Cares Partnership board meetings

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Healthwatch Calderdale is here to gather and represent the views of adults, young people and children living or using services in Calderdale. We want to know what’s working well and what needs to be changed. Together we can make a difference:

We tell the people who run health and care services about your experiences and hold them to account.
We investigate problems and seek solutions.
We have a say in how local services are delivered and designed.

Our voice is your voice. We want excellent health and care services in Calderdale that have been shaped by local needs and experiences. We want to involve people of all ages and from all sections of the community.

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Healthwatch Calderdale, your local health and social care watchdog

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Our job is to listen to what you have to say about health and social care. When you need help, we're here to support you. When you talk to us and share your views on health and social care, we are the champion who can voice your ideas to the NHS and get your views heard where it matters most.

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This video from the King's Fund is the best we have found for explaining the current changes to the NHS structure in an accessible way.

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How does the NHS in England work and how is it changing?

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Did you miss Jonny's presentation? Watch it here:

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Did you miss Jonny's presentation? Watch it here:

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At our Forum events in  May & June 2023 our Chief Officer Jonny delivered a presentation on the subject 'the impact and demand on the voluntary sector'.

The aims of this presentation were to inform people on the position of Healthy Minds within the healthcare system and how our strategy responds to current challenges.

For those of you who couldn't attend in person, Jonny has kindly recorded the presentation for us!

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The Voluntary & Community sector in Calderdale and beyond: a changing landscape

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georgia@healthymindscalderdale.co.uk
07541 690128

Healthy Minds main line: 01422 345154

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Please use the Eventbrite link to book onto an upcoming Forum meeting!

Our meetings in Halifax are monthly - every LAST Wednesday of the month, 12.30 - 2.30pm.

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The Healthy Minds Forum is an inclusive space for people to come together to explore issues, share experiences and take action for positive mental health in Calderdale: padlet.com/georgiahealthyminds/healthymindsforum Check here for upcoming events!

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Meeting notes - Re-launch event 21 Feb 2023

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Meeting notes - Re-launch event 21 Feb 2023