1. Mind
Subsectoral Project Report
William Snagge
Specialist Support Team Manager
October 2010

2. “I felt helpless, so I turned to the only
organisation that I knew had helped me in the
past - Mind. No one was helping me in my most
urgent hour of need. I needed help,
understanding and comfort. Mind gave it to me,
right from when I walked in. ..the centre
manager...understood the pain and anguish I
was going through….I felt like I was amongst
friends and had finally found someone who
would listen.”
Making a difference

3. Mind’s Primary Objective
To make it possible for people who experience
mental distress to live full lives and play their full
part in society

4. Strategic Goals
• Changing Society
• Providing direct support
• Giving people a voice
• Creating mentally healthy communities
• Developing the organisation

5. How we do this
• Mind Infoline
• Legal Advice line
• Publications
• Web support
• EcoMinds and grant making
• Involving people with direct experience of mental
distress in everything we do

6. Policy and Campaigning Work
• Employment
• Acute and Crisis Care
• Benefits and Welfare Reform
• Debt and Mental Health
• Access to Psychological Therapy
• Criminal Justice
• Refugee and Asylum Seekers

7. I told the Prime
Minister, you do
know about my
breakdown, don’t
you?
1 in 5 people have
dandruff. 1 in 4 people
have a mental health
problem. I’ve had both
1 in 4 people, like
me, have a mental
health problem.
Many more have a
problem with that.

8. Local Mind Associations
• 173 affiliated organisations across England and
Wales
• 1200 services
• 220,000 beneficiaries per annum

9. Supporting local Mind’s to respond
strategically to the changing mental health
services operating environment
Specialist Support

10. Mind’s involvement in Foresight
• Important time for the organisation, as Mind implemented
significant changes to the way in which its network is
supported
• Clear need for voluntary organisations to understand and
respond to changes in their operating environment
• The work on Drivers supported strategic thinking about these
issues within the local Mind services team
• Staff involved in the project benefited from development of
their understanding in strategic insight and planning
• Local Mind associations are benefiting from the enhanced
skill sets Foresight has promoted

11. What went well?
• Opportunity to focus on key drivers and inform
thinking going forward
• Opportunity to learn from other subsectoral
participants
• Support from Foresight team
• Flexibility from Foresight team when
operational issues (at Mind) interfered.

12. What did not go so well?
• Starting with one member of staff and finishing
with another was not great for continuity
• Allowing sufficient time for research and esp.
interviews was problematic
• Allowing sufficient time for driver development
was also under estimated

13. What we enjoyed
• The opportunity to explore ideas and influences in more
detail with people thinking exclusively about driver
development and strategic thinking.
• The chance to focus and drill down in terms of
implications on a handful of specialist but significant
drivers. We choose:-
• Changing attitudes to mental health
• Mental health and wellbeing
• Government strategy on mental health
• Mental health service commissioning

14. What we have learnt
‘Moving Forward’
• We are clear that Mind needs to demonstrate it
is the ‘best’ community partner to work with in a
larger and more diverse market of mental
health service provision.
• We need to ensure quality is continuously
embedded in our work

15. • We need to ensure Mind is in a position to
respond to the impact of changing attitudes to
mental health
• How will our customer facing functions respond
to new customers, with newer (perhaps
formally undiagnosed formally) need?
• Are we considering service (and access) re-
design for people in full time employment or
those who wish to access services remotely?

16. • How are we responding to Wellbeing?
• Are we developing services that enhance
control for people with direct experience of
mental distress?
• We need to ensure local services work with the
whole person - and can demonstrate this to
commissioners and other supporters
• How can we help evidence the impact of this
approach?

17. Responding to new mental health strategy
• Strong sector leadership will be needed, at all
levels
• Mind must have a key role in this
• Our staff, trustees and funders need to
understand its likely implications
• Mind needs to demonstrate leadership - in
terms of new approaches to the promotion of
mental health and wellbeing?

18. Our work in 2012-15
Driver analysis leading this work - this represents a
significant change
Drivers: -
1. Economic climate and double dip threat
2. Increased mental distress
3. Decentralisation of policy, service provision and
commissioning
4. Shift in cultural values regarding role of the state
5. Developing communication and information
technologies

19. Further information
www.mind.org.uk
w.snagge@mind.org.uk
07500 040529