Cardiff Mind Ltd

Area Covered: Cardiff residents only

Voluntary Sector Agency No.1020633

Mission Statement and Aims:

Cardiff Mind promotes positive mental wellbeing through empowering and supporting people to access opportunities to give them independence and quality of life.

Aims

• To provide services that place the consumer at their centre and that enable the consumer to discover and realise their full potential as actively participating citizens
• To develop new services that enable the consumer to remain within or return to their local community of choice
• To provide high quality services that evidence positive outcomes and value for money
• To increase awareness and understanding of mental health issues and to challenge stigma and discrimination

Services:

Day Services

Cardiff Mind’s Day Services Team are available from Monday to Friday from 9am until 5pm. Their staff will help you to work out what your options are and what information or service is most appropriate for you. Due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, Cardiff Mind are currently operating their services via phone call or zoom until allowed to return to face to face.

Initial Assessments
When a service user gets in touch with Cardiff Mind in regards to their mental health, they are booked in for an Initial Assessment. This is where Cardiff Mind’s experienced mental health practitioners discuss the issues that may be affecting the service user. By doing this they are able to look into the ways in which they can support the clients. This includes a range of different services within Cardiff Mind such as guided self-help programmes and counselling. If they feel that none of the courses are the best fit for the service user, they may also offer signposting and make referrals to another service.

Active Monitoring
Active Monitoring is a six-week guided self-help programme. Service users are provided with materials that contain information, exercises and helpful strategies that will be relevant to their current mental health. This allows clients to better understand and manage their feelings. One of Cardiff Mind’s experienced practitioners will call the client once a week, to support them through the 6-week programme. This helps with feelings surrounding: anxiety, anger management, depression, feeling along, grief and loss, self-esteem and stress. Clients can be referred after their initial assessment. Cardiff Mind is contracted to offer this service until March 2022.

Tier Zero and CCI
A CCI (Centre of Clinical Intervention) is another guided self-help programme that Cardiff Mind offers which spans over the course of 6 weeks. As part of a Tier Zero contract with the Cardiff SE Cluster of GP Surgeries, Cardiff Mind are able to offer these one-to-one guided self-help sessions. There are 9 courses, covering different common mental health issues. Each course teaches skills and techniques to allow service users to cope with the effects of their mental health. The courses offered are: Assertiveness, Self Esteem, Depression, Panic, Worry, Perfectionism, Procrastination, Social Anxiety and Distress Intolerance. Service users can be referred for this programme following their initial assessment or directly through their GP in the SE Cluster.

Counselling
Counselling can help address personal problems in a positive way by exploring options, developing strategies and increasing self-awareness. Cardiff Mind offers two counselling services; free and paid. Clients can be referred for these following their initial assessment if the mental health practitioner feels they are suitable. The free service offers up to 16 sessions. Due to the demand for counselling and there being relatively few free counselling services in the Cardiff area, there is a long waiting list for free counselling, of up to 6 months. Cardiff Mind also offers paid counselling, which is priced at £40 per session and these sessions are open-ended. There is an average waiting time of two weeks for paid counselling.

Training

Cardiff Mind are recognised experts in supporting people with mental health issues and have established a comprehensive training programme. Cardiff Mind works with private companies, statutory and voluntary organisations as well as individuals. They can tailor courses to individual requirements, to include mental health topics of their choice. Currently due to the Covid-19 pandemic, all training courses are operating remotely. These will go back to operating face to face when allowed.

Mental Health at Work
The Mental Health at Work course can be given to staff, which is aimed to provide awareness within companies about mental health. This covers stigma, depression, anxiety, self-harm, bipolar disorder, psychosis and what to say and not to say to someone who is experiencing mental health problems. This also covers practical measures to support individuals own wellbeing. This course can be offered as a 2-hour session, a Half Day course or a Full Day course.

The Mental Health at Work for managers is a 1 Day course that is more tailored to noticing, supporting and promoting good wellbeing and mental health within a company. This covers what you can do as a manager, how to take note of mental health in your workplace and how to tackle the causes of work-related mental health problems.

Mental Health First Aid
Cardiff Mind also offers a 2 Day Mental Health First Aid course for adults. This aims to provide improved knowledge of mental illnesses as well as interventions, first aid strategies and confidence in helping individuals who are experiencing a mental health problem.

Mental Health Awareness
The Mental Health Awareness course is suitable for anyone and is a 2-hour session. This covers similar topics to that of the Mental Health at Work course including the importance of staying mentally healthy and where to get help and support.

ASIST
ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training) is a two-day interactive workshop in suicide first aid. It teaches participants how to recognise when someone may have thoughts of suicide, how to identify someone at risk and how to work with them to create a plan for their immediate safety. Anyone over the age of 16 can learn the skills to intervene and save a life from suicide. ASIST is founded on the principle that everyone can make a difference in preventing suicide.

Additional Services

Domiciliary Support
Cardiff Mind offers support for individuals and families who have experienced mental health difficulties. This support focuses on helping people to maintain tenancies and live successfully in the community. This is primarily accessible through Social Services.

Tenant Support Direct
This scheme is only for Cardiff Community Housing Association tenants, and offers support to maintain individual tenancies which is specifically housing related.

Supported Accommodation Services
This service provides accommodation in shared houses and flats for men and women who are enduring mental health needs and wish to progress to more independent living. This is not 24 hours staffed but includes emergency out of hours support.

Volunteering
Many of our groups and activities are provided by Volunteers and we welcome anyone who feels that they have skills or interests that they may wish to share with our service users.

For more information on these services telephone 029 2040 2040

Community Connector Project

Cardiff Mind are running a new project in partnership with the NHS, which is designed to help people access community services and groups to improve their mental wellbeing. This service targets people over the age of 18 and who are registered with a GP Practice in one of our 3 clusters; Cardiff South East, Cardiff City and South and Cardiff East.

Our community connectors will offer confidential, non-judgemental support with a safe space for people to be heard. They will then help you access the support you need. It aims to provide support to those may benefit from social and wellbeing support as an alternative/in addition to health care provision. The project aims to be inclusive and accessible to the hardest to reach groups in our community.

If you would like to make a referral, please email [email protected] to request a referral form including Name, DOB, GP surgery.

Referrals:

Service users can self-refer to Cardiff Mind for an initial assessment by contacting 029 2040 2040. Following this assessment, they can be referred to our guided self-help programmes, counselling or other relevant services.

Service users can only go Tier 0 through referral from their GP.