Mental health Support Archives

Wiltshire Mind joins BBC’s “Make a Difference – Happy Heads” local radio campaign

Helping Children and Young People across Wiltshire

One of the impacts of the Coronavirus pandemic is the effect on children’s mental health.

BBC Wiltshire’s local radio campaign Make A Difference: Happy Heads aims to help children, parents and carers by promoting volunteering, and sharing links to organisations and charities that can help.

Wiltshire Mind’s Counselling Co-ordinator and Community Fundraiser Laura Oatley joined the local radio conversation on 17th February. You can listen here to the full interview.

Our counselling service for those aged 11+, provides long term support, away from the school environment. Provided by specialist young peoples’ counsellors, the service is easily accessible – to find out more email us at counselling@wiltshiremind.co.uk

Our free counselling for children and young people provides a safe space where highly specialist counsellors use a range of creative therapeutic methods to help young people connect to, and express, their emotions. Helping young people develop coping strategies can mean they are able to thrive rather than just survive.

We are an independent local Mental Health Charity based in Melksham providing county-wide services and we are here for you. We are affiliated to Mind, supporting those who are experiencing mental health problems or emotional distress.

Visit our website today for more information.

If you would like to support us, please donate using our Just Giving page.

Peer Support Groups resume via Zoom

We are taking the Coronavirus pandemic extremely seriously and know that it has caused anxiety amongst the public and our own staff, volunteers and participants, especially where we have had to suspend face to face services.

It is great news that we are now able to resume our Peer Support groups online via Zoom, and this is available to both existing and new group members seeking support with their mental health and wellbeing.

The timetable of groups is as follows:

Chippenham – Mondays 10am
Malmesbury – Mondays 12pm
Devizes – Tuesdays 10am
Melksham – Wednesday 12pm
Trowbridge – Fridays 10.30am

We will also be re-starting the Evening Group and Tidworth group soon. Tidworth will run on Thursdays at 10.30am and the Evening Group will run on Tuesdays at 6.30pm.

To register your interest in attending our peer support groups, simply email supportgroups@wiltshiremind.co.uk with your contact details and the group you are interested in attending.

Our 1-2-1 counselling services are continuing remotely via Zoom and telephone.

In addition to our adult service, we offer counselling to young people from 11 years of age.

To find out more, or to register for counselling, please email counselling@wiltshiremind.co.uk

We understand the huge impact that months of lockdown have had on people’s mental health, and we are here for you. Please do get in touch if you would like to access our online services.

We need your support please

Since the first lock down in March 2020, Wiltshire Mind has been providing Counselling for adults and young people and also running Peer Support Groups to those in need of mental health support. We have seen a big increase in demand in recent weeks, and we have been able to offer online counselling and support groups to people across Wiltshire. Last year, we were able to offer over 1150 counselling sessions.

Like many charities, we are seeing a decrease in our income though. We offer low-cost services, ensuring they are available to anyone. But this also means our current level of income is not covering our costs.

To provide mental health support to our communities across Wiltshire through 2021, we need to raise £465 a day. We do not currently receive any commissioned or statutory funding, so we rely on the generous donations of our supporters and local fundraising activity, which has been hit hard by the pandemic and the social restrictions.

1 in 4 of us will experience a mental health problem in our lifetime. We make a difference by offering hope through mental health support to our community. The Coronovirus pandemic is having a huge impact on our mental health. Help us be there for everyone in Wiltshire who needs us at this time.

If you can help in any way, please support us and donate today.

To find our more about Wiltshire Mind, visit our website.