MHAG, the story so far:

The idea of MHAG was first discussed by chair Harriet and vice-chair Rebecca towards the end of 2012. We had been working alongside the Make A Difference group for a few months with the aim of getting action taken on the Bromsgrove Highway bridge where two men had tragically lost their lives that summer, sadly already a location where others had previously taken their lives. We both felt, whilst we wanted to continue supporting Make A Difference, there was also a huge need in the borough for a focus on mental health as a whole. We decided to host a meeting at the end of May 2013 and invite along members of the public, as well as organisations with an interest.

To our delight we had many more people there than we expected, all of whom had their own story to tell which they were more than happy to do in such an open forum. It felt like a real step forward in terms of the stigma surrounding mental health, something we are determined to do our bit to erode. Everyone had something to say about how they felt services should be organised, where they felt there were gaps in provision and how mental health had affected their life - which made us all the more certain a group needed to be formed in order to be a voice for people with mental health issues who are some of the most vulnerable in our town.

Since then we have held monthly meetings focusing on aspects of mental health our members tell us are most important to them - for example concerns were raised about the police having to deal with those in crisis unable to access other sources of help so we invited Insp Ian Joseph from West Mercia Police to one of our meetings to answer members' questions. Through the meetings and visits to various organisations we are starting to build up a picture of what support is out there and not only where there may be gaps in services but also what could potentially be done to fill those gaps.

It is equally as important to us to get mental health at the forefront of people's minds and talked about on an equal basis to physical health. The first major event we organised was the town's first Wellbeing Week in October to coincide with World Mental Health Day. We hosted a two day Advice Shop in the Kingfisher Centre where residents could find out more about more than 25 organisations, a quiz on WMHD itself and a Feel Good Revolution event focused on the benefits of exercise and healthy living, as well as a 12-hour fund-raising bikeathon. Sandycroft Centre, SureStart, Bromford Support and Your Ideas hosted events in conjunction with Wellbeing Week and YMCA and Birchensale Middle School also got on board with creating displays for the week.

At our very first meeting it was suggested a support group should be put in place to ensure people had a place to go if they needed some help and a chat with those in similar situations. One of our members Mary agreed to run this group, which has been going since June and meets weekly.

We are now looking to progress the organisation by formalising our constitution and expanding throughout 2014, with a number of fund-raising and awareness raising events on the horizon in the very near future.

Redditch MHAG