Help Us to Help You
Development and Sustainability Survey 2024
Burton and District Mind’s Development and Sustainability Programme was very well timed. In 2020, we chose to invest in a new team to expand our delivery into Lichfield District and Tamworth Borough as well as build on our successes with Holistic Therapy and Eco-Therapy.
Along with new NHS funded services to support people with serious mental illness and people in mental health distress, and our Older Adult Outreach service, we have been able to extend our capacity to help 4,000 people with mental health problems a year!
This has been critical in helping people during the post-pandemic period and through the Cost-of-Living Crisis and the impact this has had.
Our pool of evidence to help shape new services needs a refresh. Behind the scenes, we have been holding focus groups, speaking with participants, checking census data and the priorities and goals of our strategic partners, whist researching best practice and learning about new innovations that can shape our work.
But we can’t mark our own homework! We now invite the whole of our community to Help Us to Help You by way of a community survey which has been coproduced with community representatives, volunteers and staff.
The survey should take no more than 20 minutes to complete, and you can save your progress. We have not set a deadline presently, although we will take and data from this as it comes in. You have the right not to answer all of the questions. Your responses are completely anonymous; please don't provide information that may identify us, such as your name or address.
The results of this survey may be used to support charity and service development, and therefore some results will be shared to promote the charity and its services, with grant funders and donors, and to support our campaigning for better mental health services.
There is a section on getting to know your circumstances, this is so we can identify patterns from the people who respond to us. There is a section on your thoughts, views and opinions on how we can do more.
Please do send this wide and far – we will provide a PDF of the flyer on this download link.
Feedback:
Involvement and Participation
Our Commitment to Involvement
We recognise that our greatest asset is people with lived experience of mental health problems and their carers. Their empathy, experience and understanding of mental health recovery is as valuable as the skills and knowledge of our
qualified team members.
To provide the best solutions that we can, it is essential that we build a deep understanding of the experiences and needs of people with mental health problems. It is vital that this insight drives everything that we do. Wherever we can, we will actively seek opportunities for people with experience of mental health problems to innovate and improve our services, to lead and guide our work and to include our own personal experience, where we have it.
There are a number of ways we activity collect your insight, experiences, views and comments:
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Assessments and recovery planning
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Project and service evaluations
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Meeting Monitoring Reports
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Complaints, Compliments and Comments procedures
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Soft intelligence from our Community Associates and staff
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Networking with other mental health services and charities
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Our Mental Health Ambassador Forum
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Other steering groups relating to projects, such as Sideways Neurodiveristy Steering Group and Employability Steering Group
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We will anonymise any comments before using them.
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Your views are used and discussed at:
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Board of Trustee Meetings with one of the Board Members responsible for ensure we hear you.
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Strategy meetings to set our charity plans in motion
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Management Meetings
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Development and Sustainability Meetings
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Communication Meetings
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Project Planning and Grant Applications
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Day to day operations and delivery of services
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To find out more, contact us and ask to speak to our Development and Sustainment team
Just some of the comments about our services and charity...
“Everyone’s energy and enthusiasm were great for me.”
“I have made some great new friends.”
"You and your team do a truly brilliant job and I feel we are all equally important in recovery."
"We are also seeing the benefits transfer to therapy, with the service user better able to concentrate on and make use of therapy, as their social support needs outside of the clinic are better met."
​“I love that I have learnt to make time for myself and taking that time to appreciate the surroundings more.”
"You helped bring my confidence back up as well as helping me to build new relationships. It has taken away some loneliness as well as keeping my mind active and giving me that thing to look forward to
You Said ... We did
Can we have more mental health support for our employees? | Yes, we provide mental health support, training and events for teams across East Staffs, Lichfield and Tamworth |
We want to run our Peer Support Group | And we helped with infrastructure, funding, promotion, training and systems - THREE TIMES! |
More services for people with serious mental health problems | Our Future Focus service works directly with some of the most vulnerable people in our community, identified by NHS staff |
More opportunities for fundraising - we want to help but don't know where to start... | All donors and fundraisers have a named Project Coordinator employed to help with their activity. |
More volunteer spaces please | We increased our capacity through community fundraising and deploying more staff to support volunteers |
You need more insight into LBTQAI+ audiences | We now have a Steering Group with with members of the audience to see what we can do better! |
Easier to use website | Our website is simpler to use, with less clicks needed to get the information you want |
More services outside of Burton on Trent | Our Future Focus and Safe Hands services now support people across our whole area, we have an office in Burntwood and our Safe Haven is in Tamworth |
We want more sport activities | We have piloted football, cricket, running and are looking into bowls for 2025 |