How HFEH Mind’s values help shape our mental health services

All organisations have a set of core values that guide and shape everything they do. Even if they haven’t formally written those values down, or consciously thought about them when making decisions, those values can still make a big difference in how an organisation works.

Values don’t just influence what services an organisation offers, they influence the way those services are delivered, improved, and thought about.

An organisation that values responsiveness will prioritise speed and efficiency, while one that values individuality may focus more on creating tailored services for each client.

Our values have helped shape what services we offer, how we offer them, and how we think about changes we could make to our service to make it easier for everyone who needs them.

What are Hammersmith, Fulham, Ealing, and Hounslow Mind’s values?

We provide advice and support designed to empower anyone experiencing a mental health issue, and campaign to raise awareness, improve services, and promote understanding, and our values help us do that.

Open

We want to be open and available for anyone who needs us.

We want to be as open, honest, and transparent as possible about how we operate, so anyone who uses our services can trust us.

Writing this blog is part of that, letting you know who we are, what we stand for, and what standards we hold ourselves to.

We also launched In Mindsight, a podcast that looks at mental health in an open and honest way.

Together

We’re stronger in partnerships.

We work together, whether that’s as a team made up of individuals, working with external partners like the North West London NHS Trust, or with volunteers.

We also want to stand together with you, and anyone who needs us. That’s why our organisation has more than doubled in size in the last two years, so we can work with more people, across more of London than ever before.

Responsive

We listen, we act, we change.

As a mental health charity, we need to be responsive to new treatments, methods, and guidelines.

We also need to be responsive to the needs of anyone who uses our service. We actively listen to our service users, involving them in service design and delivery, and change our services based on their feedback.

For example, when the pandemic first hit, we pivoted to offering online services, meaning people in our community could access support without leaving their homes.

We also created My Mind TV, a new resource hub with videos for young people, parents and carers, and education staff.

And we have added new contact forms on our website, making it easier for people to get in touch with us, find out more about our services, and self-refer should they need to.

Independent

We speak out.

We’re committed to speaking out about issues of inequality, stigma, and anything that impacts vulnerable or marginalised members of our community.

As an independent organisation, we have the ability to challenge, to change, and to make our own choices. Our South Asian community project was born from the need for more nuanced information into the needs of our users, and we’ll be piloting more projects like this in the future.

Unstoppable

We never give up.

Our mission is to support and empower anyone with a mental health condition. Providing this as a charity isn’t always easy. But we never stop, we never give up, and we keep pushing for better results. We’re always looking for practical ways to improve results for our service users.

This year, we launched our Safe Space service, three drop-in centres for anyone experiencing a mental health crisis. One of our most successful services to date, the Safe Spaces is taking pressure off the NHS, and giving people experiencing crisis a safe place to go where there are trained staff on hand to help them.

This service wouldn’t have possible for us to plan, orchestrate, and launch two years ago, but thanks to our new members, new funding, and our values driving us forward, we were able to launch a service that has made a radical difference to our community.

And that’s why we do what we do.

Learn more about the positive impact of our work, or find out how to work with us.

Posted on: 25th November 2021