The Mental Health Network: Better Together

6 minute read.

A blog by Andy Langford, VCSEP Mental Health Network Co-Chair.

The origins of the Mental Health Network

This takes us back to the London Bridge and Borough Market terrorist attack in 2017. When Sarah Davidson and I first met in person, we set up a rest centre in one of the community spaces in Borough Market. Right from the off, it was really apparent how important the physical space was and how this had impacted the whole community there. But what was clearly linked with this was people's mental health and wellbeing.

When Sarah and I were doing some work to set the place up, we were immediately thinking: how is this going to be a space where people will be able to stand or sit, have a cuppa and feel as comfortable as they possibly can? Considering that only a few yards away they may have previously felt very unsafe and may have been in a position of danger and risk, transforming that experience into a position of safety is enormous. For me, it symbolised the relationship between the physical, the emotional and the mental, and how they intertwine.

To make this possible, so many volunteers came down and gave their time, and that was immense. But what started to bring it all together was organisations working together and forming relationships.

The importance of working together

What became apparent in those early days was the importance of relationships. When you're in a situation where you're facing either an impending crisis, you're in the midst of one, or you're trying to assist with recovery from one, being able to trust the people around you is really, really important. That's even more true when there's been a felt experience of a lack of safety.

There were a number of incidents at the time. We've talked about Borough Market, but of course there was Westminster Bridge, the Manchester Arena attack, the Grenfell Tower fire and several others. What came out of that was the profound relationships we built between organisations.

As we continued, whilst there may have been a small core that started, what became apparent was that the very nature of providing support in this way cannot remain with just a few organisations. There needs to be strength in community, strength in coming together, and strength in having forums where relationships, communication and connection can be established amongst organisations.

In my view, that's what the Mental Health Network is able to provide and encapsulate. That's where it comes from and how its importance has been realised, and we see that today. When we have incidents in communities where people are harmed, where there's damage and where there's trauma, there can also be healing. Often, that healing happens in the context of people, organisations and groups coming together, and that's what we look to foster in the Mental Health Network.

Looking ahead: priorities for the future

There are two factors that I think are important to keep in mind and consider going forward.

The first, and this needs to be fundamental, is that when someone approaches us with a need before, during or after an event, we're not thinking: is this a mental health need? Is this a physical need? Is this a community-based need?

We don't silo when we're in need. We just need help.

Of course, services often do silo because that's how funding is often structured and how we segment what we can do. But what all the research tells us is that the best experiences for clients, customers, service users and disproportionately impacted communities come when they receive one whole experience rather than a segmented set of services.

Generally, people tend to disengage if there are too many hoops to jump through, and why wouldn't they? It's too hard when you're already distressed. In that sense, mental health can feel like a contradiction. Whilst it's important to recognise it as a distinct area and worthy of emphasis, the reality is that it must be intertwined with everything else, because that's what the experience is when someone comes to us in distress as a result of an incident.

My second point is around recovery.

I'm a therapist, and I first started practising in 2003. One of the first things I was told in training was that when you start with a client, you should already be thinking about the ending and what happens afterwards, because you're only part of someone's journey.

That is the case, and we need to be humble about this. We need to think about what we define as recovery before we even start doing anything in terms of relief.

Some of the responses that come to mind, where I've thought we've done a good job and genuinely helped people, are those where we've had some input and then left the situation with people feeling more empowered and more resilient. Not necessarily because of everything we've done, but because of what they've discovered they need.

It's about thinking about what comes afterwards before you provide support, and even before you've started conceptualising it. If you only start thinking about recovery at the recovery point, it's already too late.

Creating an environment where people can flourish

We need to create a culture and an environment where we can flourish as organisations and as colleagues, so that we can help other people. That then creates the environment where people can access help, heal and continue on that journey, connecting with the support they need.

The Mental Health Network run an exercise every year and work through a particular scenario. The reality is that within every scenario there are several embedded opportunities to explore different ways of responding.

Take the chemical spill scenario as an example. Without giving too much away, we naturally think about what we're going to do immediately, what we do in the days following the incident and what happens during the recovery phase. But when we've looked at previous tabletop exercises, we've also explored how we engage with communities, different types of communities, promoting diversity and inclusion, facilitating effective communications, and how information doesn't remain within one organisation but stretches across different organisations and sectors.

These challenges are multifaceted.

So, I would encourage anyone to come along, not just to the current exercise but to future ones as well. If you look at it and think, "I'm not sure whether that's for me," I'd encourage you to think again. Even if the scenario doesn't immediately appear relevant to your role, the chances are there will be valuable learning because we'll be unpacking it from lots of different angles.

Come along to the extraordinary meetings, but also to our regular meetings too. We meet as the Voluntary and Community Sector Emergencies Partnership (VCSEP) every couple of months. What those meetings provide is an opportunity to connect with colleagues, find out what's going on and generate fantastic resources.

The list of benefits keeps growing. We have a page Mental Health Network — VCSEP | Voluntary & Community Sector Emergencies Partnership - Bringing a Coordinated Response to Emergencies | UK with all the key resources available, but most of all we're continuing to build relationships.

What we've even found is that resources emerge from all over the country. Someone in Devon might create something that someone in Durham has never come across, and that's completely understandable. Yet it could be incredibly useful.

There are lots of opportunities to learn, grow and think creatively together.

The value of extraordinary meetings

One of the other things I'd say about the extraordinary meetings is that any member of the Mental Health Network can call one.

There's only been one previous extraordinary meeting, and another is coming up. We strongly encourage this because the network is about all of us collectively coming together to help.

With that in mind, we're all peers. We can all call a meeting if we think something important has come up.

I'd emphasise that when I called the extraordinary meeting I proposed, I was a little tentative. I remember putting the idea to Tom, the EP’s Policy & Insight Lead, John, the EP’s Head of Partnership Insight, and Sarah, the Network’s Co-Chair thinking, "Is this the right thing to do?"

They were all very encouraging and said, "Yeah, go for it."

And do you know what happened? People turned up. They were encouraged, they wanted to talk, and what came from that were additional conversations and stronger connections.

So, what I'd say is this: if you're not sure, have a conversation. Get in touch. Call a meeting. If something is prevalent enough to concern you, then it's likely that other people will be concerned too. That makes it worth having the conversation.

It's so important to remember who we're here for.

And to best help people, we can do that. We can do that better together.