CEO Report
My name is Sarah and I am the Chief Executive at Hunts Mind. Before coming to Hunts Mind I have worked in a variety of mental health settings, community services, residential homes, therapeutic communities and prisons; all of these experiences have been hugely different but mostly they have been precious. I have been very lucky to work within the voluntary sector for my entire career for organisations that in the most part were user led and focused on providing meaningful and therapeutic services.
I also have a very real personal sense of what it feels like to suffer from emotional distress and feel passionately about changing the way mental health is thought about. I hope that Hunts Mind can work to stamp out stigma and discrimination and I believe all our services are designed to do just that.
What I think I have learnt in my 19 years in mental health is that if you can build trusting and honest relationships with service users positive change and recovery can occur. What I have found while working at Hunts Mind, an organisation with a proven track record of providing user led services is a deep commitment to the individuals we work with and an active desire to enable them to reach their potential. Like most contemporary services we embrace the principles of the Recovery Model that allows us to freely explore with individuals their ideas about how their recovery might look like and what we can do to help get there. What we do know is that an individual’s recovery and what that looks like must come from them – we can only assist someone in making it happen.
In my seven years at Hunts Mind I have observed some wonderful examples of 'Recovery in Motion' an emphasis on making things happen. I have also been saddened by the stories that our service users have told and been amazed at their courage for taking the steps towards getting some help.
Hunts Mind and the Current Political and Economic Climate
It is hard in today’s political and economic climate to clearly establish a sense of stability, we know that within health and social care the changes can feel un-necessary and ineffective. Financial pressure is the permanent backdrop for providers of mental health services. Each year we have to re-evaluate our viability and think about how we can manage resources more closely. This year we are aware that the pressure is unlike any other time – we have had a 3% cut from our Day Service Contract and are continually evaluating how we can within our resources maximise the front line service. What is most difficult about this process is balancing the available resources with what service users need. Hunts Mind works particularly hard to incorporate the financial restraints into service development and planning while working closely with service users in order to reach helpful conclusions about what services we can feasibly deliver. We continue to expand our funding portfolio and hope to be able to develop new services as well as preserve the current ones. This might be a good opportunity to direct browsers to the Donate logo at the bottom of our home page – all donations welcome.
There is hope within this often unsettling time. Hunts Mind has thought a lot about the strategic implications of the future and has focused on one area that ultimately strengthens our organisations capacity to provide quality services and choice – PARTNERSHIP.
Partnership
Our key partner has always been mental health service users in the decision making, planning and delivery of services. Over the years important links were created with Cambridgeshire Adult Learning in order to set up services like the Rock Group in Huntingdon. This first and crucial partnership has since paved the way for other developments.
We have also worked closely with Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Mental Health Foundation Trust and alongside their Huntingdon services have run joint groups and other activities. We in recent times have worked closely together to set up the Hunts Working Together Forum, and Hunts Mind continues to host the local Mental Health Providers Forum.
Hunts Mind is also testing the boundaries of expected partnerships within the voluntary sector and in the spirit of social inclusion is making alliances with non mental health organisations, individuals and groups. This is so that service users who perhaps want to explore their skills and social prowess can feel less stigmatised when approaching every day activities. For instance we have worked with the local gyms to ensure our service users felt able to use it on their own terms. Recently we have teamed up with Huntingdon District Councils Healthy Walks Team and have already organised joint information and events. We also work very closely with the Environment Agency focusing on Diversity.
One service that is very exciting is our Well@Work project which is designed to help workplaces become healthier and happier places to be. It seems to us that as so many of our service users feel uneasy about how they might retain jobs or enter into the world of work it is important to change how things are done. Please refer to the Well@Work section for more details.
If you would like to contact me to discuss anything about Hunts Mind please email me.
