‘Wellbeing for All’ - hosted by VAI on 12th May

Shining a spotlight on some of the amazing work going on in Islington to support the health and wellbeing of local residents

This week, BIG Alliance attended the Wellbeing for All event, organized by Voluntary Action Islington. The event commemorated Mental Health Awareness Week with the aim of shining some light on Islington-based community organisations that support local residents’ mental wellbeing – before and during Covid-19 alike. The event had speakers from 11 organisations and saw a turnout of 90+ attendees from a wide range of organisations representing the VCS as well as colleagues from Islington Council.

The event was opened with a very warm welcome from Cllr Una O’Halloran who gave a big thanks to all the VCS organisations, various departments of Islington Council and volunteers who have been supporting mental wellbeing in the local community over the past year, and beyond. Cllr O’Halloran also spoke of the stigma that still exists around mental health, especially for men and people from ethnic minority backgrounds, the importance of breaking it as well as the importance of talking about mental health in schools.

The speakers were as follows:

Emily Van de Pol, Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust – presented the Community Mental Health Transformation Plan and what it will mean to Islington residents and organisations.

Tash Alexander, Head Held High – introduced one of their most successful programmes during Covid-19, ‘Funny is Power’ - a comedy course for wellbeing. Tash was also joined by one of their service users who shared their experience on this course.

Nicky Forsythe, Talk for Health – talked about their Group Peer Counselling programme and the new groups that came out of Covid-19.

Anna Portch, Sunnyside Community Gardens – shared some lovely photos of the community gardens and talked about the value of it for the local residents’ mental health.

Carol Louvet, The Stress Project at Holloway Neighbourhood Group – talked about the importance of using Holistic Therapies to help those struggling with mental health.

Emma Charlton, The Peel Direct Action Project – to commemorate this year’s MHAW theme, they put together a relaxing video ‘The N-Factor’ (see below).

Jonathan Buffong, Mixed Martial Arts for Reform and Progression (MMARAP) – was joined by one of their services users who shared her experience of the positive impact that MMARAP had on developing her confidence.

Emma Whitby, Healthwatch Islington – spoke of the ambition and progress of the All Age Mental Health Partnership Board: Inequalities Workstream (https://bit.ly/2SRpwwA) and the Fairer Together Borough Partnership: Challenging Inequality.

Sigal Avni, Islington Mind – focused on the challenges faced by the LGBTQ+ community during lockdown, and the services that have been provided to them.

Geethika Jayatilaka, Chance UK – presented their work on supporting the wellbeing of children aged 5-13 and their parents/carers.

Ismail Bahriyeli, Age UK Islington – told us about their work with carers, delivered in partnership with Camden and Islington NHS Team.

All presentations were incredibly interesting and informative, emphasising the importance of local authorities and community organisations working together to support their residents on a holistic level. It was great to also hear from the two service users from Head Held High and MMARAP about how the services they received helped them on a personal level. Finally, we enjoyed learning about Sunnyside Community Gardens through their photos, and watching the N-factor video created by The Peel Project, both of which were very much in line with this year’s MHAW theme of Nature.

According to Fairer Together Partnership, 81% of Islington residents are worried about the impact of Covid-19, particularly on their mental health and wellbeing (26%). In addition, it is estimated that there have been some 28,000 new cases of anxiety and 38,000 cases of depression in Islington borough over the past year – an increase of whopping 16% and 22%, respectively.  It is therefore crucial that Islington council and local community organisations continue their fantastic work in partnership with each other, as a complex issue like Mental Health cannot be tackled in isolation.

All in all, the event was a great success celebrating the existing comradeship between the Islington community partners as well as providing an opportunity for new connections to be made.

You can find the link to the event recording as well as slides for each presentation here.