A West Cumbrian mental health organisation has achieved a new status.
Always Another Way, based in Frizington, has been providing people across West Cumbria with inclusive tailored support for mental wellbeing for over eight years.
It previously operated as a community interest company but is now transitioning to become a charitable incorporated organisation, which it said will allow it to have a greater impact on the local community.
Executive officer Lyn Cavaghan said: “For us to grow and keep doing what we’re doing, being a charity incorporated organsation means that we can access more funding, draw on free services for charities and we’ll be able to get donations, so it’s a really great strategic move for us.
“We’ve grown hugely in the last two years and our staffing keeps going up and our goal since I took over has been to come a charity as our previous model didn’t really fit.
“All the money we were getting in was going straight back into the community, so having the charitable status beautifully aligns us with our goals.”
Always Another Way first launched in 2016 and first provided LGBT+ youth provision before it expanded its services to offer tailored mental health support and essential coping strategy advice in 2021.
The charity now offers a range of services to people aged 11-plus including one to one support, group support in a range of adult and family support groups, LGBT+ support groups for young people, activities like group arts and crafts and walking football and alternative therapies like laughter yoga and reiki.
It also offers mental health courses to local organisations and schools to raise awareness of poor mental wellbeing.
Sessions are run by both staff and volunteers who offer up their time to help drive coaches or run activity sessions.
Lyn said: “We’re that step before strategy services, so our aim is to give people the tools they need to tap into coping strategies using things like music, exercise, diet and sleep to help them navigate their mental health so they hopefully don’t need to access more serious services.
“It’s those little things that can form stumbling blocks and we’re here to help them over those hurdles. None of our staff are counsellors, and sometimes we get referrals outside of our remit, but we will always hold their hand to the next door. We never close a door on someone.
“But we get some brilliant feedback and we often hear stories where for example people haven’t left the house in months and now we’ve got them back going out and coming to our groups or getting a job.”
Since 2021 the charity has grown from just four staff members to 10 and Lyn said the team has seen a clear and growing need for tailored mental health support in West Cumbria.
She added: said: “We constantly have a flow of people on our waiting list, so we’re very much needed. With our one to one sessions, we now deliver 12 sessions per client and we previously we had that a bit more open ended.
“But we’ve had to be more strict with ourselves to make sure we are helping as many people as possible. Our staff are trained on suicide awareness and self harm because it’s an every day occurrence.
“I do think there is a crisis going on. We’ve had 283 clients through the books in the last six months and last year we had 294 come through over the course of the whole year.
“A huge barrier we come across is isolation, because we are so rural. But because we go out to people’s homes, we can break that down and help them with that and get them into a group setting.”
You can find out more about the services on offer at Always Another Way by clicking here.
