Improving access to mental health support for people experiencing multiple disadvantage.

Mental ill health is both a cause and a consequence of multiple disadvantage. Getting help with mental health can be an essential part of the journey towards a fulfilling life. But for people affected by multiple disadvantage accessing appropriate mental health support can be challenging.

Addressing this is a key strategic priority for the Fulfilling Lives programme. The latest report from the programme explores the barriers to getting help with mental health faced by people experiencing multiple disadvantage, examines the response of the Fulfilling Lives partnerships and presents evidence and learning from five in-depth case studies.

The Fulfilling Lives partnerships present their recommendations for how change can be achieved. The report draws on independent evaluation findings and insights from the Systems Change Action Network (SCAN) – a group representing the programme leads from each of the Fulfilling Lives partnerships.

Read the summary report

Read the full report

Links to the separate case studies are below

VOICES’ Care Act Toolkit

Fulfilling Lives Newcastle and Gateshead’s Respond training

Opportunity Nottingham’s specialist mental health workers

WY-FI’s flexible psychological therapy service

Golden Key’s lived experience involvement in the local mental health strategy

The Research and Evaluation Team at WY-FI have created a brand new, interactive dashboard, which is accessible from the main menu on the website.

It provides quick and easy access to key beneficiary data from the project over the past five years.

Data can be filtered quickly and easily by locality, gender, age, ethnicity and type of HARM need (homelessness, addiction, reoffending and mental health). 

For example – in just a few clicks, a search could be done on the number of males in Leeds aged between 35 and 40 who’ve experienced homelessness, or on the types of exits we’ve recorded in females under 25 in Bradford.

Anthony Leeman, Data Analyst at WY-FI, has been leading on the development of the dashboard. “We’ve been working on this behind the scenes for a few weeks. We wanted to make our data more accessible for people, as well as make it easier for our data to be shared.

Anthony went on to say, “the dashboard holds data from the moment beneficiaries enter WY-FI caseload. It tracks their progress over time, as well as their exits – including any other services and/or support that were involved.”

The Data and Research Team hope that as well as providing at a glance data, the dashboard will offer deeper insight into the work that we do across West Yorkshire, and generate questions and discussions around the demographics and other details of the project’s work. 

The dashboard is now live on the WY-FI website, and will be updated monthly. It includes a handy user guide to get you started.

If you need any help using the dashboard, or have any questions, comments or feedback, you can contact Anthony Leeman at anthony.leeman@humankindcharity.org.uk or call him on 0113 887 0051.

The West Yorkshire Criminal Justice Network provides opportunities for agencies and organisations from across the criminal justice sector to connect on a regular basis.

It’s improving prison leaver engagement in West Yorkshire. In Leeds, thanks to Prison Release Clinics, oattendance at first treatment appointments on release from prison has increased from 26% to 74%.

The network was established in 2016, by West Yorkshire Finding Independence (WY-FI) and the Integrated Offender Management Team at Humankind, with a focus on people with multiple needs in the areas of homelessness, addiction, reoffending and mental ill-health. 

Today, the network is made up of groups and organisations from the public, private and voluntary sectors of West Yorkshire, as well as people with lived experience of the criminal justice sector.

Read the full briefing here.