Hope Haven, a unique community mental health and wellbeing project, will soon be offering walk-in support in West Cumbria.
The walk-in sessions will be held at The Senhouse Centre in Whitehaven town centre.
This month, walk-in support will be available between 9.30am and 4.30pm on Tuesday December 9, Friday December 12, Tuesday December 16, Thursday December 18, Friday December 19, Tuesday December 23 and Tuesday December 30.
A drop-in session will also be held on Friday, January 2.
From January 6, people will be able to walk-in to the Senhouse Centre for support every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday between 9.30am and 4.30pm.
Hope Haven brings together a range of health and support services so people in Whitehaven and Copeland can get the right help at the right time, without referrals or waiting lists.
David Storm, associate director for access and community services at CNTW NHS Trust, said, “We can offer people a huge range of support at these walk-in days, whatever they are struggling with.
“We are here if you’re worried about your (or someone else’s) mental health or mood, need help with physical health and fitness, to tackle drug or alcohol addiction, or if you need advice on housing, work, or money problems.
“So come and talk to us. You’ll get a warm welcome from one of our team, and they’ll listen to you to find out how we can help.
“What’s unique about Hope Haven is that if you need more than one type of support, we’ll build that around you – rather than people getting passed between different services.”
Since launching in March this year, Hope Haven now also offers:
- Telephone support open 9am – 5pm Monday to Friday on 01946 556 136
- A Virtual Safe Haven, offering video-call appointments between 4pm-midnight every day with trained mental health and peer support workers, bookable any time online at https://wcmhp.org.uk/hope-haven
- Drop-in sessions and activities ranging from housing and benefits advice, support for carers, to wellbeing walks and chair-based exercise classes
- Community outreach such as monthly visits to care homes
- A Chatty Café every Friday 10am to noon at Cross’s Coffee Shop, helping to tackle loneliness
David added: “This is just the start. We’re still hard at work getting our main building on King Street ready to offer walk-in support every single day of the week – we’ll be sharing more updates about this soon.
“But Hope Haven is more than just a building. Since March we’ve supported over 550 people.
“We’ve helped people to find housing after being homeless, to get support near home rather than needing to go into hospital, receive specialist medical help, and get out of the house and connect with people in their community.
“Now that people can walk in and see us at Senhouse Centre three days a week, we’ll be able to help even more people find hope.”
The project is a collaboration between Cumbria Health; Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust (CNTW); Everyturn Mental Health; Home Group; iCan Wellbeing Group CIO; The WELL Communities CIC and Whitehaven Community Trust.
The work is being funded by NHS England, as one of six pilot schemes in a drive to provide more mental health support in local communities.
