Health Action and Voluntary and Charitable Sector Summit
Tunbridge Wells Borough Council hosted the autumn Health Action Team/Voluntary and Charitable Sector Forum meeting on 20 October.
Chaired by Cllr Pamela Wilkinson, the forum meets quarterly and brings together different organisations working to improve health and wellbeing in our borough and beyond.
The autumn meeting featured presentations from:
- Samaritans outlined the benefits of their nationwide active listening service, the challenges facing their organisation, and their ambition to develop a programme of in-person listening sessions. The Samaritans have already run a pilot drop-in session at The Amelia Scott on 19 October.
- West Kent Mind explained the work that their service delivers to improve mental health across West Kent. The charity delivers low-cost counselling, creative wellbeing programs and much more to support residents experiencing mental health challenges. They have already partnered with the Amelia Scott’s Creative Health team on a number of projects including work exploring the benefits of tabletop roleplaying games for improving mental health.
- The team also heard from Highlands House speaking about Mental Health Together and Mental Health Together +, who discussed the treatment and support they deliver and how it fits in to the wider context of mental health services across the borough. The presentation was an eye-opening view into the support available for residents with complex mental health needs, and helped other services and organisations understand how referrals into the Mental Health Trust work.
- Finally, the Council’s Sustainability Team presented an upcoming programme named “Winter Wise” that includes distribution of energy efficiency kits to low income households. The team are asking for help to distribute the kits and to locate residents who will benefit most from receiving them.
The meeting showed the value of partnership working and created links between Council services and organizations. The Council is also working with Citizen’s Advice to deliver a Voluntary and Community Sector hub in Royal Victoria Place on the eighth floor: a free office and meeting space for services to work and share resources.
If you are an organization interested in the free space, visit: https://twhub.org.uk/
If you would like to find out more about the HAT/VCS forum or to be added to our distribution list, please contact communications@tunbridgewells.gov.uk
