Millions of reasons why Mental Health Matters in Wales

Area:

Wales

Programme:

Mental Health Matters

Release date:

6 5 2008

Projects the length and breadth of the country are benefiting from the Big Lottery Fund’s (BIG) Mental Health Matters (MHM) programme, which aims to promote the rehabilitation and independence of people with serious mental health problems in Wales and support those at greatest risk of suicide.

With the £999,000 they received, Bro Morgannwg NHS Trust will run the "Lets Talk" - "Siaradwn Ni" project, which aims to reduce stigma and improve public awareness regarding mental health issues across the Bridgend and Neath Port Talbot borough areas. This will be achieved through providing a knowledgeable and trained framework of support and suicide prevention, encouraging earlier recognition and response. The project will work with a consortium of voluntary and statutory sector services, including the local Children and Young People’s Partnerships, to create a structure of referral, support and interagency collaboration.

With a grant of nearly one million pounds (£995,567), the Coleg Harlech Worker's Educational Association (North Wales), will run a project to deliver individually tailored learning opportunities for people with mental health problems. Courses will be delivered in supported familiar environments at mental health resource centres in North Wales and North Powys.

In a project that will serve Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, Pembrokeshire and Powys, the Helping Groups To Grow organisation will spend their award of £679,461 on a project to develop a comprehensive rolling therapeutic 13 week programme of group work, which will be delivered to individuals who have experienced significant harm as a result of their substance misuse and psycho-social history.

And there’s help for the homeless in South East Wales. A grant of £316,514 will allow Solas Cymru Ltd to provide psychotherapeutic support to homeless men and women in Newport, Monmouthshire and Torfaen, who have serious mental health problems. This will enable them to identify, acknowledge and be able to act upon the deep rooted psychological reasons which lie behind the difficulties they face. The service will help people to move on successfully in the long term both practically and psychologically.

Projects benefiting the whole of Wales have also received a significant funding boost. With the £659,508 they received HAFAL will support and assist people with serious mental illness to overcome the barriers that prevent them returning to work or achieving their vocational goals.  The project will provide intensive individual support to beneficiaries allowing them to undertake employment opportunities. And in a project that will deliver services throughout Wales, Mind Cymru will spend £987,955 to promote the rehabilitation of people with serious mental health problems and support people at greatest risk of suicide. Trainers will be qualified to deliver information to professionals and community groups throughout the Principality to enable them to identify the beneficiaries and signpost the way to support and treatment.

A grant of £789,215 will also enable the Eating Disorders Association to work in collaboration with other eating groups to establish a Wales wide infrastructure of users, volunteers, and voluntary and statutory agencies. The project will aim to better support people affected by eating disorders and to reduce the incidence of relapse, crisis and suicide through the provision of long term community based support.  

Highlighting the importance of the funding Big Lottery Fund Wales Committee Member and Chair of the Mental Health Matters Committee, Barbara Wilding, said: “One in four of us is likely to experience mental health problems at some point during our lives so it is important to recognise the issue. People with mental health problems are some of the most disadvantaged people in society and often experience multiple deprivation.  Many are isolated and have low self-esteem and low aspirations. Their condition is made worse by the stigma, lack of understanding and discrimination they face daily.”

She added: “These projects will have a significant impact on the lives of people who suffer with mental health problems in Wales and our funding will make an important strategic contribution to developing mental health services across the country, by helping people with mental health problems and supporting projects that try to overcome the barriers that they face.”

For further information about the Big Lottery Fund and how your group can apply for funding, log onto the Big Lottery Fund website www.biglotteryfund.org.uk and use the ‘Wales’ specific search facility. Alternatively, you can telephone the Big Lottery Fund office on 01686 611 700.

Contact information

Big Lottery Fund Press Office – Oswyn Hughes: 02920 678 207
Out of hours contact: 07760 171 431
Public Enquiries Line: 08454 102 030
Textphone: 0845 6021 659
Full details of the Big Lottery Fund programmes and grant awards are available on the website: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk.

Notes to Editors:

• In Wales, the Big Lottery Fund is rolling out close to £1 million a week in Lottery good cause money, which together with other Lottery distributors means that across Wales most people are within a few miles of a Lottery-funded project.
• The Big Lottery Fund, the largest of the National Lottery good cause distributors, has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK since its inception in June 2004. It was established by Parliament on 1 December 2006.
• Since the National Lottery began in 1994, 28p from every pound spent by the public has gone to Good Causes. As a result, over £20 billion has now been raised and more than 250,000 grants given out across the arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment.

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