Open Mental Health Champion

This is a great opportunity to help people you know find out about mental health support in your area, as well as having your say about how services should work.

We are looking for people from all walks of life to spread the word about Open Mental Health, to help your friends, family, neighbours or colleagues get help when they need it. We particularly welcome people with lived experience of mental health difficulties, or people from communities that might struggle to get what they need from mental health services. We will give you support to get involved.

You don't need any special skills or experience to be an Open Mental Health Champion .

What is Open Mental Health and why do we need Champions?

Open Mental Health is a group of Somerset charities, NHS mental health services and Experts by Experience (people with lived experience) working together, to help people get the help and support when and where they need it. This could be counselling or advice, and you don't need to go through your GP. We need Champions to help us to get services right and tell everyone, in every community, that this help is out there!

What will Champions do?

• Share your experiences and ideas to help improve Open Mental Health services.

If you find a problem, like a reason why someone can’t or won’t access Open Mental Health, you can feed it back. You could go to Open Mental Health Locality meetings, where the services come together to share news, commissioners’ meetings and conferences.

• Tell people about Open Mental Health.

This could be talking to a group, or just a casual chat with one person, giving out leaflets and information with the contact details.

• Talk to people about the Five Ways to Wellbeing.

This helps people look after their mental health. It can be done in person and on social media.

• Talk about your own mental health experience, and represent your community.

How much time will Champions need to spend?

It is flexible - you could do up to 8hrs per month.

Who will Champions be?

If you live or work in Somerset and have good contacts in your community, you could make a great Champion!

Will Champions be paid?

If not in full time work, Champions can be paid up to £15 per hour, plus travel expenses. This should not affect your benefits.

If mental health or well being are part of your work, you may chose to be a Champion as part of your work.

Please contact us for more information.

What support will Champions get?

You will have regular one-to-one support from an Open Mental Health

Stakeholder Engagement Coordinator, and catch-ups with other Champions to share your ideas and experiences.

What training will Champions get?

We will provide a short welcome session with training to get you started and support you in your role. This can be online or in person.

Champions can also do more free training. This could include Mental Health First Aid, Using Social Media, Five Ways to Wellbeing and Suicide Awareness.