Burton and District Mind are delighted to announce a new 3-year Mental Health Development Project in Burntwood, funded by Lichfield District Council and Burntwood Town Council.
“What we need is something to show that we can actually do this for ourselves. We just need some guidance and some funding to get us started. We need someone to trust us.” - Burntwood Resident with mental health problems.
For too long, people with complex and long-term mental health problems have been seen as a ‘problem to be solved’ at best, or a ‘problem to be ignored’ at worse. This sad fact is that this is more true in the township of Burntwood than in our other communities due to the cultural legacy from the mental health facility previously at Saint Matthew's Hospital.
People with mental health problems are valuable citizens, having strong aspiration to be independent from over-stretched statutory mental health provision, to be in work, and they also possess a great empathy to be responsive and effective at helping other vulnerable people.
Through three years of funding from our compassionate and understanding local authorities, we will support more people with mental health problems to be more engaged with their community, benefit from the wonderful range of the community assets and reduce their need on overstretched NHS mental health services. But this isn’t just about the next three years… Our plan is replicate our model that has worked in Burton on Trent, ensuring that projects are continued beyond three years, being flexible, sustainable, and can adapt to what the people in Burntwood need and what local funders what to see improved.
Our three-year project will see the development of a mental health hub based in Burntwood, serving the whole of Lichfield District, with a new Project Coordinator role established. They will work with the successful Development and Sustainability Team to deliver new mental health projects, develop the established Burntwood volunteer programme, and bring a new way of thinking about mental health to Lichfield District.
Keri Lawrence, Development and Sustainability Officer at Burton and District Mind notes:
“We’ve seen some real miracles happen in East Staffs, with Bat and Chat Cricket, Eco-therapy, Music Projects and Mindfulness Groups and we are excited to be able to get the ball rolling in Burntwood and Lichfield.”
We will continue to work alongside our partners, such as Burntwood Be a Friend, Mind Matters Burntwood, Curborough Community Centre, Social Prescribing Link Workers, and the Integrated Mental Health Team, and look forward to having the time to make some new friends too.
Lichfield District Council’s cabinet member for community engagement, Cllr Richard Cox, said: “It’s exciting that we can support remarkable organisations to launch very promising community projects … that reflect the diverse needs within our district and we look forward to seeing the positive outcomes these projects will generate.”
Cllr Darren Ennis, leader of Burntwood Town Council, said: “A few months ago, we ran a survey asking residents where they felt our grant funding should go – and we were told loudly and clearly that we should be funding mental health and wellbeing support for adults. As a result of this feedback, Councillors were delighted to award £15,000 to Burton and District Mind over the next three years to deliver much needed services. We are proud to invest in and bring more opportunities to our town.”