Mental Health and Wellbeing
Stage: Latest newsOur goal is that by 2025 London will have a quarter of a million wellbeing champions, supporting Londoners where they live, work and play.
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Background
The challenge
What is this mission about?
This mission is about improving Londoners’ access to support and resources which can benefit their own wellbeing and enable them to take a more active role in supporting the wellbeing of those around them.
This is particularly important for Londoners whose wellbeing is worse or at greater risk, including those who face barriers to engaging with activities that can help them to feel better – such as older, disabled or minority ethnic Londoners.
We are currently working with partners to define and scope this mission further.
Why are we doing this?
Wellbeing is about ‘how we’re doing’ as individuals, as communities and as a city.
The pandemic has had a huge impact on many Londoners’ mental wellbeing.
This was recognised in our conversations on Talk London in summer 2020. Mental health and wellbeing was the single most talked about health issue for recovery.
The data shows it too, with reduced life satisfaction, increases in low mood and anxiety, and higher levels of loneliness seen since the pandemic began. While the vaccine rollout and end of restrictions are a positive step for many, for some Londoners the negative impacts of the pandemic on mental wellbeing will be longer term.
All these impacts have been felt most by those Londoners and communities that entered the pandemic already in a position of disadvantage. It has widened existing inequalities and shone a light on others. This is also true in terms of mental wellbeing: for some people the pandemic has been one of many challenges, only adding to people’s negative feelings. There is no easy fix, and no ‘one size fits all’ model.
Activity to support wellbeing is already happening all around us – across and within communities, in workplaces, on high streets and in many more places besides. There is much to learn here and to build on.
Delve deeper
Our approach
To recover from the economic, social and health impacts of the pandemic, London's Recovery Programme has set out a missions-based approach. This will bring together the public, private and voluntary sectors, and involves working with all Londoners to make it a success.
The Mental Health and Wellbeing mission aims to enable and empower Londoners to improve their own and their communities’ wellbeing, particularly those whose wellbeing is worse or at greater risk.
The mission will improve access to support, resources and ideas. It will provide support to Londoners who want to take forward activity to improve the wellbeing of their communities.
We’ll work closely with communities and local partners to understand what would be of most value to them.
The mission has four themes:
- empowering individuals to support their own wellbeing and the wellbeing of others
- enhancing and supporting community activities and networks that benefit wellbeing
- equipping people in places and settings to support wellbeing
- building support infrastructure, like a network and digital hub.
It is important to recognise the range of opportunities in other missions that will have a positive impact on wellbeing.
Short-term actions:
- Continue to share and promote new wellbeing resource pages available on the Thrive LDN website as part of the mission’s Wellbeing Campaign.
- Work with faith and community partners to develop culturally competent bereavement resources as part of our ongoing Bereavement Support Programme.
- Scope how existing community champion models can inform and be developed to train and upskill communities on mental health and wellbeing. Design and deliver a workshop in July 2022.
- Develop and embed principles to support the wellbeing champion definition.
- Continue rolling out training for London councillors and mental health champions to support their own mental health and effect change within their local communities.
- Continue to identify, consolidate and commission the development of bespoke mental wellbeing training offers to help people support their own wellbeing and that of others.
- Continue to listen to Londoners as we define our long-term goals and plans for achieving them, including how we will measure the progress and impact of the mission.
- Work closely with other recovery missions and cross-cutting principles to identify opportunities for improving wellbeing.
- Embed learning from local authorities and voluntary and community sector organisations around what is happening locally and where the opportunities to build on locally driven activity are.
Policy team
Mission co-leads:
- Kevin Fenton – Public Health England London (PHE London) and the Mayor’s statutory advisor
- Will Tuckley – LB Tower Hamlets
Lead organisations and partners:
Thrive LDN, PHE, GLA, London Councils, local authorities (including public health teams), voluntary and community sector organisations.
Timeline
How your feedback has started to shape London’s road to recovery
HappenedNovember 2020: Workshops with key partners from health, voluntary sectors, local authorities and community organisations
HappenedDecember 2020: Mental health and wellbeing impact assessments and action planning with London’s Strategic Coordination Group (SCG) – coordinated by Thrive LDN
HappenedFebruary 2021: Briefing our key partners and stakeholder across the health and care sector and developing our early engagement plans
HappenedMarch 2021: leadership and governance for the mission transferred to the Thrive LDN Advisory Group, working closely with the Leaders’ Group and Social Recovery Board
HappenedApril 2021: Thrive LDN led engagement with the mission’s Working Group to revisit the mission narrative, develop project options and to align expectations of our key London partners
HappenedThe Mayor launched a citywide public awareness campaign on bereavement to help direct Londoners to information, advice, and support to cope with their grief.
HappenedJune - July 2021: Thrive LDN worked in partnership with Cruse Bereavement Care to deliver free, one-hour webinars on Bereavement and Loss Awareness, aimed at workers or volunteers supporting bereaved Londoners.
HappenedJuly 2021: Good Thinking started working with faith groups to support the development of further, culturally competent bereavement resources which will be available from the autumn
HappenedLaunch of new wellbeing resource pages on the Thrive LDN website, marking the start of the mission's Wellbeing Campaign
HappenedRenewed commitment to the #ZeroSuicideLondon campaign as we marked World Suicide Prevention Day
HappenedSeptember 2021: Continuation of a pan-London Wellbeing Campaign, focusing on protective factors. Meanwhile, wellbeing training offers for Londoners and those supporting them begun being rolled out
HappenedSeptember - October 2021: Delivery of a further five Bereavement and Loss Awareness webinars, taking the total to ten sessions
HappenedThrive LDN and the Mayor’s Peer Outreach Team host London’s World Mental Health Day festival, led by and for young Londoners.
HappenedOctober 2021: Engagement around the wellbeing champion concept and resources stepped up
HappenedNovember 2021: Ubele/BAMEStream trial bereavement training offers to support black Londoners
HappenedNovember 2021: All London boroughs offered free training for councillors supporting mentally healthier conditions for both themselves and the communities they serve via webinars by Thrive LDN
HappenedMarking National Grief Awareness Week, Good Thinking launched a workbook on how to support a bereaved person in a culturally sensitive way
HappenedWinter 2021: Research into existing 'community champions' networks, mapping what already exists in London and opportunities to engage with and support these champions with additional resources, tools and training
HappenedCelebrated London's first Great Mental Health Day, which aims to get us talking about mental health and how we can improve our wellbeing
HappenedSupported Children's Mental Health Week
HappenedThrive LDN hosted a roundtable on support for children and young people with bereavement and loss, attended by charity partners, policymakers, education sector staff and young Londoners with lived experience of loss
HappenedFebruary 2022: Good Thinking launch faith-based bereavement resources for Buddhism, Judaism and Islam
HappenedFebruary 2022: Ubele/BAMEStream hold immersive bereavement workshops for councillors, therapists, community workers and others supporting Londoners from Black or racialised communities experiencing grief, bereavement and loss
HappenedFebruary 2022: Launch of radical self-care training workshops by Thrive LDN in partnership with the Innovation Unit and Mind in the City, Hackney and Waltham Forest
HappenedFebruary 2022: projects for the Mayor’s Right to Thrive Innovation Fund underway
HappenedMarch 2022: Good Thinking launch faith-based bereavement resources for Christianity, Hinduism and Sikhism
HappenedDiscussion stigma and barriers to bereavement support at the UK Commission on Bereavement Faith Roundtable
HappenedMarked the National Day of Reflection with the UK Commission on Bereavement
HappenedApril 2022: Launch of a short guide for supporting the mental health and wellbeing of displaced Ukrainians arriving to the UK
Happened9 - 18 May 2022: Marked Mental Health Awareness Week, including a Thrive LDN hosted panel on loneliness and the cost of living crisis
Happened16 - 22 May 2022: Celebrated Creativity and Wellbeing Week with a theme of 'get creative, get outdoors;
HappenedCelebrate Right to Thrive projects at event with KCL
HappenedHold workshop with champion groups to develop wellbeing champion programme and resources
HappenedWhat do you do to improve your mental health?
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