News - Working together to promote good mental health

Cheshire West Voluntary Action’s (CWVA) Mental Health Alliance recently held a successful networking event, bringing together organisations in the community and public sectors to discuss mental health services.

The Mental Health Alliance is a group of organisations from the community sector, including charities, community groups, social enterprises and other charitable organisations.

The group comes together on a regular basis, providing an opportunity to share ideas, learn from one another and build relationships with the NHS and Cheshire West and Chester Council.

Separate working groups are also part of the Mental Health Alliance, looking at mental health support for the following people.

• Women
• Men
• Children, young people and families
• Under-served communities, such as asylum seekers and refugees, the LGBTQ+ community, those with learning disabilities and autism and others

The recent networking session in Helsby was the first large-scale event held by the Mental Health Alliance, with more than 100 people attending throughout the day.

After workshops and presentations during the morning session, NHS and Council staff joined in the afternoon to meet community sector organisations, find out more about the services they provide and explore ways they could work together moving forward.

Andrew Herbert, Mental Health Strategic Lead at CWVA, said: “There are more than 50 organisations involved with the Mental Health Alliance now.

“They’re all shapes and sizes and, for some organisations, mental health support is what they focus on all the time, while some are specialists with particular groups of people and others simply encounter people with mental health challenges in their roles.

“As much as it can be difficult for community sector organisations to relate to the NHS because it’s so big and diverse, it’s also hard for the NHS and Council to relate to all of the community sector.

“Having an alliance brings us together and helps us develop a common view and voice.

“We’ve started building excellent relationships with partners in the public sector and this event was another positive step forward.

“It was fantastic to have so many people from different organisations in one room, all with the same goal to make sure people with mental health difficulties can get the support they need.”

For more information about CWVA and the range of support it provides to the community sector, visit: cwva.org.uk.