We are a community for people with lived experience of mental health to campaign for change.
Last Friday, the first formal meeting of the BNSSG LGBTQ+ Mental Health Lived Experience Steering Group took place. This was an exciting session because it represented the culmination of a number of planning sessions that have taken place over recent months.
The main part of the meeting was welcoming a co-chair of the local Mental Health & Wellbeing Cell. The main responsibility of this Cell is to allocate emergency funding to support the local mental health system in the wake of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
One of the main reasons the Steering Group has formed is because the proposals of how to use emergency funding notably lacked provision for the mental health and wellbeing needs of the LGBTQ+ community. The Steering Group held the Cell to account by raising a number of questions with their guest, including how there can be more embedded co-production with the community in future projects to improve local mental health services.
The Steering Group looks forward to working with the Cell in order to improve dedicated mental health support for people who identify as LGBTQ+. Future meetings of the group will look at future projects that will raise awareness of mental health within the LGBTQ+ community.
October 2, 2020 at 12:45 pm