National Rural Mental Health Forum Seminar

Agenda

11am Welcome

11:05am Phil Worms, Frog Systems - Mental Health: Using the Power of the Lived Experience to communicate messages of support and hope

Each year one in four of us in the UK experiences a mental health problem. Yet three quarters of the people with mental health problems receive no treatment and do not know where to turn to find the help they need. The current COVID-19 pandemic will exacerbate this issue. Frog Systems has developed the world’s first dedicated mental health and wellbeing video platform which utilises the power of the lived experience to communicate positive messages of hope and support, from those that have survived to others who are facing their own personal challenges. Recognising that video content accounts for 80% of all consumer internet traffic but is woefully ignored as a communications channel, Frog has placed film at its heart. Its Champions Cinema® contains 1000s of professionally curated videos featuring real people telling their own stories in no more than 60 seconds - covering a comprehensive range of mental health and wellbeing topics. By harnessing the power, authenticity and relatability of lived experiences and immediately presenting routes for people to take steps to start addressing their issues, Frog aims to ignite hope and trigger early remedial action.

People perform better - at university, at work, on a sports field - when they have a purpose, are confident, motivated, and completely focused on being the best they can be. Good mental health underpins this.

12.05 Eva Groeneveld and Louis Phillips, Competition and Markets Authority

The Competition and Markets Authority is the UK’s primary competition and consumer protection authority. It works to ensure that consumers – particularly vulnerably consumers - get a good deal when buying goods and services and that businesses operate within the law.

The CMA is aware that poor mental health has impacts on consumers, that people with mental health difficulties can have radically different experiences of ‘mainstream’ markets, and that harm associated with a lack of competition, or poor treatment of consumers, can be amplified where people are experiencing mental health difficulties.

This is an opportunity for Forum members to outline some of the issues that the CMA can take away and investigate further in its future work.

12:45 John Casserly, Support in Mind Scotland - Mental Health and Money Advice Service

Support in Mind Scotland's Mental Health and Money Advice Service is now accepting clients.

This is a unique service which provides money and benefits advice via the website and delivers complex in-depth casework to individuals, initially by phone and email, to assist them to maximize their income by managing their benefits and debts, therefore improving their wellbeing.

There is a new expanded team of dedicated advisers ready and waiting to accept referrals from colleagues and partners. MHMAS works closely with the information team in our new National Advice and Information service as we aim to provide an all-inclusive service to improve the mental, physical, and emotional wellbeing of our service users.

We also provide a ‘toolkit’, a set of good practices to assist people in managing their money and mental health. This can act alongside our bespoke advice as part of a prescription to alleviate anxiety and worry. Referrals can be made via the SiMS National Information Service and a dedicated portal for referral partners, to enable our response to requests for assistance swift and straightforward.

We are dedicated to working with people to improve their mental health by helping them to understand, manage and improve their financial health.

Date of Next Meeting - 18 Aug 2021

13:00 Close