We’re now into Mental Health Awareness Week (10-16 May), and Wrexham’s mental health and wellbeing charity Advance Brighter Futures (ABF) is calling on local people to get involved with its new initiative ‘Not Just Talk’.
Not Just Talk is an opportunity for people to give their opinions to help ABF improve and enhance its current services, so it can meet the increased need for mental health support in Wrexham brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The survey is open now, and the closing date to have your say is Friday, July 30. You can complete the survey here: ‘NOT JUST TALK’ SURVEY
The survey is also available in:
Polish here: ‘NOT JUST TALK’ Polish
Portuguese here: ‘NOT JUST TALK’ Portuguese
Welsh here: ‘NOT JUST TALK’ Welsh
There will also be a consultation session people can attend online through Zoom. This will take place on Wednesday, June 23, 1.00pm-3.00pm. Anyone wanting to attend can do so here: ZOOM LINK (Meeting ID: 974 5570 4215, Passcode: 424810)
“EVERYONE’S OPINION COUNTS”
Cath Taylor, Business Development Officer at Advance Brighter Futures, said : “The past 12 months have been challenging for mental health and a lot of people have been hit hard. At ABF we’ve continued to offer our services throughout the pandemic, but we want to make sure we’re still delivering the right things in Wrexham to meet people’s needs.
“We’ve always been clear that our services are shaped by the needs of local people, and Covid may have changed things for them. They may be looking for a different type of support and we want to make sure we have what people are looking for. That’s why we need people to complete the Not Just Talk survey, as we can use this information to enhance what we do. We want everyone to get involved – it doesn’t matter if you’ve used our services before or not – everyone’s opinion counts.”
“I NEEDED TO TAKE CONTROL”
Someone who has found the pandemic challenging is local person Darlene Conde. Darlene approached ABF and began attending its Mindfulness sessions after her mother passed away during 2020 as she was struggling to cope.
Darlene said: “I knew I needed to take control of what I could do to improve my mental wellbeing. The hardest part was to pick up the phone and take action and I had the ABF number in my phone for ages before I finally made the call.
“I attended the Mindfulness course and it helped me so much to put things in perspective and let go of a few things that were not helping me out. Coming up to week 4 or 5 of the sessions, I realised that this was really benefiting me, and I was able to put into practice what I had learnt.”
“ANYONE FEELING THEY NEED TO ASK FOR HELP PLEASE DO SO”
As Darlene’s wellbeing improved, she began to acknowledge how the group had helped her. She said: “The group really helped me to focus, and it broke the loneliness after losing my Mum.”
Darlene continues to use ABF’s support services and added: “The support I have received from ABF has been so useful to me and has helped to keep me going, and I am now waiting for Talking Therapies which will also allow me to explore my feelings with a counsellor.
“I would say to anyone feeling they need to ask for help ‘please do so’. I know it is one of the hardest things to do, but you are strong person knowing you need support and asking for it.”
If you live in the Wrexham area and struggling with your mental health, you can learn more about ABF and the services on offer here:
Telephone: 01978 364777
Email: info@abfwxm.co.uk
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