The Wellness Bridge is an innovative pilot providing support to people living with long term mental illness to tackle the underlying causes of their mental illness, reduce the risk of cancer (because we know people with serious mental illness are at higher risk) and build better self care habits for long term health.
The service will also provide support to people with serious mental illness who are going through the diagnosis or treatment pathway for cancer.
We have 2 key goals: To improve mental and physical health of people living with severe and enduring mental ill health (and thus reduce risks of developing cancer) and to help improve mental health whilst people are undergoing treatment or diagnosis for cancer.
People can access routes of support:
One to one peer support with a Mind outreach worker who can provide emotional support around your mental health, advocacy, information and guidance and practical support. Whether you need a listening ear from someone who understands living with mental ill health or support with tackling physical health issues such as attending appointments, supporting you to attend annual physical health serious mental illness checks with your GP, support to attend smear/breast screening. We will do a holistic needs assessment and find out what you most need to improve mental and physical health.
Talking Therapy - For those who need additional mental health support over and above peer support, we can provide counselling via our project partner, Community Counselling.
Support around physical activity and nutrition - Personalised support to help you get more activity into your every day life - whether what you enjoy is walking, swimming, or support attending a class for the first time, as well as help to make small changes to improve nutrition, including meal planning support, recipes and shopping tips. Low level activities such as starting short, regular walks will be done with your outreach worker, but if you fancy taking on something a bit different, we have some budget to pay for you to have 1-2-1 activity sessions with a yoga teacher, for example.
This service is open to people aged 16+ in Scarborough, Whitby and Ryedale who are living with enduring mental illness who want to build a healthier lifestyle or who are going through cancer treatment.