Croydon Health & Wellbeing Space
The Croydon Health and Wellbeing Space is located in the Whitgift Centre in central Croydon. It is a partnership between the NHS, Croydon BME Forum and Mind in Croydon designed to focus and emphasise on providing better access to mental health services and support for people who have not previously engaged with support, including BME communities.
The Space combines clinical mental health and social care expertise under one roof to improve access, experience and outcomes. The pilot Space is for the central area of Croydon and will cater to the needs of all communities struggling with mental health issues. It is an open access via the website or by physically attending the Space in person.
Mental Health Transformation Programme:
The Croydon Population is estimated to grow by approximately 12% over the next 15 years and prevalence of all mental illnesses is also likely to increase due to changes in demographics.
It is important to note that mental health problems are more common in children in households with lowest 20% of income and 10,261 people live in areas across Croydon, considered to be within the 10% most deprived in the whole country.
Therefore, a change was required in order to successfully respond to the needs of our growing community. Additionally, services often feel fragmented, hard to access, poorly tailored to different Ethnic minorities and too focused on crisis and not prevention. The lack of focus on prevention means there are higher numbers of ward admissions throughout hospitals.
The Transformation Programme aims to diminish these issues and provide improved access experience and outcomes for the residents of Croydon.
Mental Health Transformation Programme:
The Croydon Health and Wellbeing Space is a result of the Mental Health Transformation Programme, aim to focus on prevention rather than crisis. The evidence suggests that there is not enough support to prevent poor mental health. Therefore, the Space will act as prevention by providing support such as self-care management, which could include setting up a plan that focuses on wellbeing.
The clinical team includes a psychologist who will be in the Space 5 days a week to provide support to those who need it. This is a huge step for mental health services as psychologists are often perceived as hard to reach, knowing that there is a psychologist who is easily accessible will hopefully avert mental health crises.
For those who do not feel comfortable attending the physical Space, we will facilitate this by making sure our website reflects the experience you would receive in person.