My Mental Health Involvement

I wrote this for a Healthwatch South Gloucestershire Annual Report.

I'm Peter, a Healthwatch South Gloucestershire Champion and Representative volunteer for mental health and equality. I also sit on the Advisory Group as Equalities Lead.

My role is to liaise between mental health and equality organisations to see where we can join up our efforts. As a Champion volunteer, I attend mental health groups like Time to Change and Rethink to listen to what people with lived experience of mental health think about services in South Gloucestershire and Bristol. I also attend important meetings, like the Recomissioning of Independent Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) and South Gloucestershire Equalities Forum, to make sure the voices of people who have had experience of poor mental health are heard by decision makers.

I volunteer because I am passionate about improving health care for people with mental health needs. I'm autistic and have anxiety and depression. I also volunteer at Second Step as a mental health Peer Mentor, and am involved with research and development for a mental health project and an Autism project. I'm a member of Bristol Independent Mental Health Network (BIMHN) which campaigns on mental health issues in Bristol and which is expanding into South Gloucestershire. I also participate and am involved with Bristol Active Life Project (BALP) exercise and sport for mental health.

I have been very busy lately, but it's very rewarding. Healthwatch South Gloucestershire staff have sent me on a lot of relevant training recently also, which has been interesting and useful for my role.