In recent years, the nation has seen a significant rise in people who have mental health issues. Government statistics say that 1 in 4 people will experience a mental health problem of some kind each year in England. Such large numbers present a big problem for our national health service and social welfare systems. People who can’t find the treatment they need, when they need it, can lead to a downward spiral that becomes more difficult to escape from the longer they are left untreated, sometimes resulting in a tragic outcome, that might otherwise have been avoided.
The signs of mental health can start small and are almost unnoticeable. If recognised and addressed at an early stage, it’s possible to prevent sufferers from any further onset of mental illness and can return them to a state of mental health and well-being that they, and we, all hope for in our lives.
It can take someone months on a waiting list before sufferers are seen by a medical professional, which is which is why Revd Mike Loach, Vicar at Christ Church, Higher Bebington, along with Reader, Jill Wright, and local therapist, Steve Flatt, decided to see what they could do to help.
In recent months their church has been trialling a new initiative they’ve called ‘Church Chats’, which offers 6 weekly, one-hour therapy sessions to anyone in need, free of charge and is run in conjunction with Merseyside-based psychotherapy group ‘Working Conversations’.
Costs are met by grants secured by Christ Church and by "Working Conversations" providing a much reduced rate for their time. The funding was awarded to Christ Church in a match funding bid that specifically focused on mental health. They were given £5000 to provide one-to-one solutions-focused therapy sessions or conversations to anyone in the Bebington area who needs it.
Since its inception, the church has been so inundated by parishioners seeking help across a range of mental health challenges that they have had to double the number of appointments being offered. Between them, two professional therapists now hold fourteen one-hour sessions each week.
Laura Gregory, one of the therapists says, “The initiative is still in the early stages but I think that it is already providing a vital space for people to come and talk about anything they’re struggling with.”
Mike Loach says, “The feedback has been fantastic and we're working hard to secure funding to keep the service going. I'm delighted that our collaboration with Working Conversations is providing vital support to parishioners struggling with mental health. Given the pressure on our NHS and the amount of post-COVID challenges that people are facing, it is likely that Church Chats will continue to draw significant demand in the coming months."
If you’d like to know more about Church Chats, Mike Loach can be contacted by email at mgloach@gmail.com or by phone on T: 0151 609 0943.
More about Working Conversations
Working Conversations is a not-for-profit based in Liverpool that provides accessible mental health services for as many people as possible. It also provides a solution-focused outlook and a shift away from medical models of diagnosis and problem. It is very much about providing communities the tools to think differently.
Visit the Working Conversations website