Catalyst 4 Change : Making an impact

source: Sandra Griffiths co-founder/co-director of Catalyst
published: 5 December 2018

Catalyst 4 Change offers a fresh approach to support community organisations, social enterprises, faith groups or businesses that have a significant African and Caribbean user-base, to enable them to achieve positive improvements for their mental health support needs in the West Midlands.

This is a pressing issue as a considerable body of evidence exists which demonstrates poor experiences and outcomes within African and Caribbean communities in relation to mental health.

Despite the shocking statistics, there has been an ongoing failure to achieve consistent improvements in this area, notwithstanding countless consultations and reviews, as well as endless reports, recommendations and policy commitments.

Since Catalyst 4 Change was established in 2017, we have spoken with faith-based organisations, statutory and voluntary sector organisations, grassroot organisations, black people with lived experience of mental health problems and their carers to create a better understanding of the current mental health experiences of African and Caribbean communities in the West Midlands.

We have co-hosted three black mental health seminars. Two of these seminars were held with two different black majority church organisations: New Testament Church of God and Gospel Express. One seminar, 'Working in Collaboration with the Community' , was with the Birmingham & Solihull Mental Health Foundation Trust.

These events have helped us gain qualitative data so that we have a better understanding of the real life experiences of African and Caribbean people with mental health problems and their carers when accessing services both from the statutory and voluntary sector in the West Midlands.

Earlier in the year, Catalyst contacted Synergi to explore how we could collaborate to pool our expertise to develop a regional strategy to tackle ethnic inequalities experienced by African and Caribbean communities in the West Midlands.

We wanted an original approach. We did not want to just rehearse the same problems that have shaped the African and Caribbean mental health discourse over the last 30 years. We wanted to find opportunities for change and we wanted to develop sustainable solutions.

Synergi suggested that we co-host a knowledge sharing event under its Creative Spaces hub as a starting point. We held our first West Midlands Creative Spaces event on 24 October 2018 , hosted by Sean Russell and the West Midlands Mental Health Commission.

The event brought together 22 colleagues from statutory services, public health, the voluntary sector, faith Communities, people with lived experienced of mental health problems and carers from across the West Midlands.

We had a rich, multi-layered and focused dialogue about the continued inequalities African and Caribbean communities face: the short-term nature of past initiatives that have been set up to address mental health inequalities and need to improve commissioning of culturally responsive services.

One of Catalyst’s objectives is to stimulate, develop and promote a thriving and diverse voluntary and community sector and grassroots initiatives so that they can make a positive impact on the emotional and mental wellbeing of African and Caribbean communities in West Midlands.

Our first co-hosted Creative Spaces event has enabled us to begin that journey.

See unedited original article here >