Partners
Regional Centres
The Positive Choices Project is a partnership between Mind Cymru and three local Mind associations: Mind Aberystwyth, Torfaen Mind and Vale of Clwyd Mind, which act as Regional Centres. Each local Mind association is an independent charity run by local people, for local people. Each is responsible for its own funding and the services it provides, but all are affiliated to Mind. This affiliation ensures that each local organisation meets Mind's quality standards of governance and service delivery, and that they work to further Mind's mission.
The Regional Centres use their local knowledge and networks to deliver training and outreach programmes. Each Regional Centre also participates in the collection of monitoring data for the evaluation of the Project.
Mind Aberystwyth
Mind Aberystwyth is a Health and Wellbeing Centre. It provides advice,
information and support to individuals experiencing the effects of
mental distress, including family, friends and carers. The services
include a cafe style drop-in providing healthy food and a place for
training and education; therapeutic sessions like art, walking, yoga,
swimming; several educational and support groups like the healthy
eating group and the women's support group; a tailored Smoking
Cessation Service; and houses several partner organisations and
services like advocacy, alcohol counselling and counsellors of the
Primary Mental Health Team. Mind Aberystwyth also provides training,
namely, ASIST, Mental Health First Aid and Mental Health Level 2.
Contact Joyce Borgs:
Tel 01970 626225
joyce@mindaberystwyth.org
Torfaen Mind
Torfaen Mind aims to support and inform people in the local community
who experience mental health problems, or who may have relatives,
carers or friends who experience emotional distress. Services provided
include: Advice and information, Counselling, Day Activities, a Drop-in
service, Supported Housing, Tenancy Support, Outreach Services and
Training.
Contact Berni Davies:
Tel 01495 768833
bernie.davies@torfaenmind.co.uk
Vale of Clwyd Mind
Vale of Clwyd Mind seeks to uphold the rights and represent the
interests of users of mental health services, their families and
carers; to improve public knowledge, so creating greater awareness and
understanding of mental health issues; and to provide supported
accommodation and offer social, educational, training and employment
opportunities for people experiencing enduring mental health problems.
It does this by providing a range of services including: Supported
housing for people with severe mental health problems; a Rural Outreach
Service, which provides support groups, community development
initiatives, a tearoom training scheme, mobile outreach services,
holistic therapies, talks and training including ASIST and Mental
Health First Aid; Social Opportunities/User Participation to give
people experiencing enduring mental health problems the opportunity to
increase their social confidence and skills; Employment, Training and
Volunteering, Sparks Enterprise enables individuals to increase in
confidence and self esteem by knowing their skills are needed and
valued.
Contact Carol Evans:
Tel 01745 812461
carol.evans.mind@gmail.com
Public Health Wales
Public Health Wales has a key role in the project, assisting us with monitoring and evaluation and facilitating links between Positive Choices and research projects.
Public Health Wales provides the resources, information and advice
to enable the Welsh Assembly Government, Health Commission Wales, Local
Health Boards, Local Authorities and NHS Trusts to discharge their
statutory public health functions.
To do this, Public Health Wales delivers a full range of public health services, seeking to:
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Improve the health and wellbeing of the people of Wales and reduce inequalities in health;
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Protect against existing, new and emerging diseases and health threats;
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Contribute to improvement in health and social care services.
Public Health Wales has been closely involved in supporting the Welsh Assembly Government in developing a National Suicide Prevention Action Plan, and has worked together with Mind Cymru on the ASIST pilot project.
Open Minds Consulting
Mind Cymru is working with Open Minds Consulting and Consultant Psychiatrist Alys Cole-King to develop training packages that complement ASIST and advance a community-based, gatekeeper led approach to suicide prevention.
Alys Cole-King
Consultant Liaison Psychiatrist
Alys is an experienced consultant liaison psychiatrist, based with the Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board in North Wales. She works with a wide range of people and organisations across the UK, including the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Royal College of General Practitioners, voluntary bodies (Mind, Samaritans, PAPYRUS and the Mental Health Foundation) and academics researching suicide and self-harm.
One of Alys' main interests is helping to improve the way in which people who harm themselves or attempt suicide are treated by those they meet, both as patients and among their families, friends and society generally. In particular, Alys wants to demystify the process of assessing and talking about suicidal thoughts and make it more transparent, promoting the need for person-centred care. She believes that suicidal thoughts can be viewed as the degree of a person's distress or illness, rather than something frightening that people are afraid of or unable to talk about. She has developed and approach using a range of tools for health professionals, carers and patients themselves to help identify and respond to suicidal thoughts:the Cole-King Continuum, the Bank of Hope and the Risk Mitigation Framework. These tools are currently being fully evaluated to see how effective and safe they are. Alys has an interest in promoting compassionate care and how this can contribute to the medical treatment of patients both in the hospital and primary care.
Alys has also developed innovative training called Connecting with People, which aims to improve people's attitudes to and understanding of suicide and self-harm so reducing stigma and increasing empathy. It also increases the self reported skills of those who attend. There are different versions of the training for a wide range of different people, including doctors, nurses and other health and social care staff, emergency services, voluntary organisations, retail sectors, education and businesses. Alys will be contribuing to the development of the 1 day advanced ASIST course. Alys is currently developing a number of e-learning sessions as part of the national e-GP (e-learning Programme) of the Royal College of General Practitioners.
Gavin Peake-Jones
Director, Consultancy Services, Open Minds
Gavin has 10 years experience as an organisational development consultant, working in the following areas: training and facilitation; change management and leadership development; shaping and executing stragegy and tackling complex business issues. He has worked predominantly at a senior level in large organisations across several key industry sectors.
Gavin spent 5 years working in Operations Management, gaining hands on management and commercial business experience before moving into organisational development consultancy. Prior to joining Open Minds, Gavin was Operations Director with Time Management International (TMI). Gavin's clients include: BT; Marks and Spencer; Foreign and Commonwealth Office; Environment Agency; QinetiQ and various NHS Trusts (Primary and Secondary Care).
