The Torbay Mental Health Campaign

What is this campaign about?

This is an independent project (we do not work for an organisation), looking at:

• Available mental health support in Torbay (Devon),
• How clients feel they are supported (positive and negative experiences are welcome),
• How practitioners/clinicians feel support is working currently (again, positive and negative experiences are welcome),
• Any suggestions Torbay has for how they wish to give support as a practitioner, or receive support as a client - we will then work collaboratively with our local MP and other council representatives to support decision-making in mental health support in Torbay.

Who are we?

Local residents with lived experiences, who have struggled with our mental health in recent years, but have had challenging experiences. This looked like facing barriers such as:

- Feeling misunderstood by GPs in certain mental health and neurodivergency areas (such as OCD, ADHD, depression and low mood, anxiety, eating disorders, etc).

- Trouble accessing the right support that we needed at the time.

- Stigma within school, sixth form, etc about being a victim of sexual violence.

- Financial barriers to access alternative therapies to CBT.

These experiences led to us feeling even more isolated and worsened our mental struggles.

After speaking to people in our own networks, it was becoming apparent that stigma, and struggling to access the right kind of support, was a common experience, and that perhaps a systematic issue is at fault.

After researching some more, and finding statistics on how prevalent poor mental health is in Torbay (this can be found on the 'Our Progress' tab), we decided to launch a campaign, to see how big this problem in Torbay was. Alongside this, we wanted to understand what people wish to see more when receiving support, and what already works well, to see if we can campaign to improve accessing mental health support, as well as reducing stigma. 

We understand that mental health professionals work tirelessly to support their clients, and we are so appreciative of this, but unfortunately the issue appears to be much larger. One of the solutions we are looking at is more funding for mental health support in Torbay, amongst others, which is why we are continuing to research into this concern, and collaborate both with others who have struggled with their mental health, as well as mental health professionals, and eventually our local MP.

We are reaching out to clients, mental health professionals, and local council representatives to support our campaign. We are collaborating with mental health professionals to brainstorm solutions to improve accessibility to receiving mental health support, which is an area that we have found Torbay residents would like, based on our voluntary and anonymous survey.

We are still looking at what is working well, and what Torbay wishes to see, so if you'd like your voice to be heard, head to the link in the 'Getting Involved' tab above to the anonymous and voluntary survey. 

Why are we running this campaign?

Based on our survey, alongside our personal experiences with those around us, we would like to bridge a gap surrounding accessibility in mental health support in Torbay. Our survey has so far found that this is a recurring concern Torbay residents are raising. Furthermore, as someone studying a degree to work in this industry, I often see posts from mental health professionals online talking about needing more funding to support clients seeking mental health support, amongst other systematic issues. Many practitioners work tirelessly to do what they can to support their clients and attempt to bridge the accessibility gap, but often it's found that the issue is much greater - the overall system needs increased funding and improvements. We are only a small area of the UK of course, but by supporting to bridge the gap in Torbay, this would be a huge success - and who knows, we could even expand this campaign to be UK-wide eventually!

What are our goals?

The professionals in our mental health services are hugely valued. However, our campaign is finding that there are systematic issues, out of the hands of our professionals. Therefore, we ultimately want to assist to improve accessibility in mental health support for all ages in Torbay.

Some of the key areas that have been made aware to us so far in the campaign journey include:

• A need for a wider range of therapies to cater to all needs, including to better accommodate neurodivergent and SEND clients.
• Improved support for sexual abuse and violence for under 18s.
• Reducing stigma in reaching out to receive support, particularly for men.
• Reducing stigma around mental health diagnoses, being a victim of domestic or sexual violence, and reducing stigma around needing support.
• Ensuring all GP patients feel understood and listened to when seeking support.
• Reducing waiting list times.
• Eating disorder service
• Reducing barriers to receiving support, such as financial barriers.