In September 2023, we held a gala dinner fundraiser to raise money for three key areas – mental health, youth hubs and core operational costs.
With the amazing support of our PHA Family and friends we managed to raise close to £30,000, with £20,000 being allocated to the Mental Health Project, supporting both areas of need – adults and children/young people. The remaining £10,000 has been set aside to help cover our core operational costs, which will enable us to continue to support key projects.
Project Overview
The demand for mental health services is rising at an alarming rate. The percentage of adults aged 16-74 with a common mental disorder, who were accessing mental health treatment rose from 23.1% in 2000 to 39.4% in 2014. This represents an increase of over two thirds (71%). The events of the last 4 years have only accelerated this trend, driving a huge increase in the number of people who are in contact with secondary mental health services. Mental health services in England received a record 4.6 million referrals during 2022 (up 22% from 2019), with the number of people in contact with mental health services steadily rising.
The Mental Health of Children and Young People in England 2023 report, published by NHS England, found that 20.3% of eight to 16-year-olds had a probable mental disorder in 2023. Among 17 to 19-year-olds, the proportion was 23.3%, while in 20 to 25-year-olds it was 21.7%.
The PHA recognise the urgent need for solutions, and we are working with mental health experts around the world who are already part of the growing PHA Family.
There are three key areas that we will be developing as part of the project:
Mental Health Directory
Through collaboration with likeminded organisations, we will be creating a signposting service that allows people to find free and low-cost support in their local area. This will involve researching and reaching out to organisations around the UK that support children, young people and adults with mental and emotional wellbeing.
As part of the signposting service, we will be creating a mental health directory, making it easy for people to search for support in their local area.
Resource Library
As well as creating the directory, there will be a resource library of educational material that will support and empower people with knowledge about maintaining good mental wellbeing and different holistic methods that can support this.
Training
Any training opportunities will also be featured, with the view to get more people at local level, trained up to support people in their communities.
We Need Your Help
This is a huge and vital project that will require lots of support.
In order to collaborate with community initiatives and less mainstream organisations, we need your help. Please share details of any groups that you’re aware of so that we can reach out to them and build connections. We’d love to cover the entire UK on the directory and really help people find the right support they need. Please email projects@the-pha.org with any details to share.
If you’re a mental health practitioner who’d like to volunteer with the team to make contact with all of these organisations and build the resource library, we’d love to hear from you too. Please email volunteer@the-pha.org to show your interest.
As always, your feedback is really important. If you have any thoughts or ideas about this project, please do get in touch with us at info@the-pha.org. We’d love to hear from you.