29th April 2021
Together We CIC, based in Workington, received £25,189 from the NHS Winter Resilience Fund to support its Together We Talk project.
Together We CIC set up the Together We Talk project following the closure of Mind in West Cumbria in 2019. It provides free one-to-one and small group psychological interventions as well as family support services to people aged 11 and upwards in West Cumbria.
The project started in April 2020 and as lockdown rules were lifted, there was an influx of referrals, 79 in one month alone. This funding extended the services available, meaning more clinical contact hours and a range of skills and therapeutic based models to help individuals move forward in their own recovery.
Samantha Joughin, founder and practitioner, said: “We are currently operating a short waiting list of two weeks; this funding has helped to maintain the service provision. Since we launched in April last year, up until end of March 2021, we have supported 476 engaged clients.
“We supported one person with bipolar and emotionally unstable personality disorder but was receiving no community mental health support. They had been managing their own mental health but often felt suicidal and used the crisis team and GP routinely. After receiving skills-based Dialectical Behavioural Therapy interventions, group support and the gym, they have been able to limit the crisis periods to one every six months rather than a 3-4 every year. They have also started the volunteering process with us and are working well on their own recovery.”