Mental Health Working Group Update

All of our working groups are flat out just now, our big event is fast approaching and everyone is pitching in to make sure the voice of the people in Dundee is heard loud and clear.

The mental health working group spent the summer months out in our local community, talking to people about their experiences of mental health and the effects poverty can have on mental health. Thanks to the hundreds of people; both members of the community and front line staff, who gave us their time and their honest thoughts we now have a real picture of how people in Dundee feel about the issue of mental health in their community. To do this justice we felt it was important to ensure we communicated our findings with the right people, in the right way at the right time. The next step was for members of our working group to attend meetings with the Dundee Substance Misuse Commission and Health & Social Care Strategic Planning Group where we were given an opportunity to present some of the key findings of our research alongside some direct quotes from local people. Although some of our findings may have made difficult listening we felt everyone really engaged with the issues being raised and it has certainly helped to keep the voice of Dundee at the forefront of mental health discussions. The final recommendations we are proposing are as a direct result of key issues raised again and again by members of our community and will be presented in our final report. We are also exploring every avenue to ensure policy makers and key figures in mental health in Dundee are listening and taking on board what our community is saying.

In the weeks and months to come we look forward to the culmination of what has been an intense journey but more importantly we look forward to sharing our findings in our final event, we'll see you there!