Wow, one year on and what a year it has been! It was on May 1^st 2017 that we launched our mental health hub YouinMind.org and since then we have been on quite the journey to make mental health services in Cheshire more accessible and available for all.

Of course, starting on our home turf has made it a lot easier for us to launch our mental health platform. Commissioned in partnership with NHS CCG South Cheshire and Vale Royale, we initially started to help communities in those districts find local and online mental health support.

Since our launch last May, we have had a staggering 5569 people use our platform to find mental health services in Cheshire.

From community groups to therapy, art clubs to artistic dance, we have searched the county in order to find the right help and support for those in need of mental health support. Our hub has made finding help, advice and guidance a lot easier for families, professionals, and young people across Cheshire.

Many of the groups and mental health services we have found were up until last May hidden, under-utilised and invisible to the local community. Since launching YouinMind.org, those services have received the recognition they deserve through our platform and now people across the county can now find the support available to them.

Thankfully, our hard work was recognised by our CCG partners and we were asked to expand across the rest of Cheshire to now include Eastern Cheshire and West Cheshire on our platform.

What has happened over the past 12 months?

• We’ve reached out to schools and GPs, sending out marketing packs to help raise awareness of the platform (please contact us if you’d like a pack!);
• We’ve spoken to local press to increase visibility for the platform and the services we promote on it;
• I've been speaking at local events across Cheshire;
• We’ve been able to provide our CCG partners with insight into what gaps there are for mental health services in Cheshire;
• And we’ve begun to work closer with the providers on our website to promote our platform and create a true partnership!

So what now? Well from this moment on, we’re going to be working on a range of local and online events to get you involved. This will include networking opportunities for all of our providers because our job is to make mental health services in Cheshire easy-to-find and easy-to-navigate.

Connecting our providers together will give us the chance to fill those gaps we have identified. That will allow for those with mental health needs to find that support without struggle.

Working together, we can make YouinMind.org a success for mental health services in Cheshire, and maybe one day, the rest of the UK too!

Happy birthday, YouinMind.org! 

Lots of love,

Kate x