The North Tyneside Mental Health Alliance was established in 2022 to build a place-based alliance of voluntary, community and social enterprise sector organisations (VCSE), ready for partnership working and procurement. It is funded by North Tyneside Integrated Care Board as part of its Community Mental Health Transformation Plan, managed by VODA and currently has 47 member organisations.
In November, the Alliance organised a Celebratory and Networking event and 74 delegates from the VCSE sector and statutory services gathered together at Wallsend Memorial Hall. They were able to network, celebrate achievements and forge relationships that would impact on the support they can provide for the people of North Tyneside in the future. There were a number of informative presentations delivered throughout the morning:
Vicky Smith, CEO of VODA who outlined the importance of the VCSE sector within the north east area:
- Nearly 7000 VCSE employing nearly 38,000 people
- Financial value of £1.65 billion
- 79% of these organisations reply on volunteers to keep going
Anne Webster, North Tyneside Mental Health Alliance Coordinator, gave an overview of the achievements to date of the Alliance including the training programme, which has been attended by 209 attendees over the 20 training sessions.
Jane Walker, Head of Mental Health, Learning Disability and Neurodiversity, Northumberland and North Tyneside Local Delivery Team gave a summary of the Community Mental Health Transformation Plan and the key areas of focus.
Following a break it was an opportunity for the Alliance members to talk about collaboration amongst members to enable them to better help and assist the people they support, including joint work from Depaul and NT Life to support a young woman ‘Sophie’ to regain her life and engagement in the community. Thanks to the YMCA, North Tyneside Art Studio, Props, NT Life and Launchpad for their fantastic and emotive presentations, particularly those involving experts by experience talking about the support they have received from Alliance members
The final presentation of the morning was from Kirsty Christofi, Health Projects Manager at VODA who gave an overview of the Peer Support Project. Research by Healthwatch North Tyneside and Launchpad had highlighted a gap in the provision of peer support and group activities to support individual’s mental health. So far the project has mapped out existing peer support groups and activities and worked with community members to identify the gaps in provision.
Alliance members have collaborated with each other to put in for grants to meet the need within the community and develop sustainable solutions together. There are currently five projects in the planning and delivery stage from a variety of organisations using art, craft activities, music, nature and opportunities to meet up with others to provide peer support.
The morning concluded with a lovely lunch provided by Big River Bakery and an opportunity for more networking and gathering resources from the many information stands present.
