About us

Aims

Mind in Mid Herts has a collaborative, positive and holistic approach to promoting mental wellbeing. We support individuals who are suffering or who have suffered from mental and emotional distress. This is achieved by following the Recovery Model which enables individuals to make well informed life choices. This way of working underpins all aspects of work within the organisation

History

Mind in Mid Herts is a local mental health voluntary association and charity affiliated to national Mind.

Mind in Mid Herts came into existence through the amalgamation of Mind in Welwyn Garden City/Hatfield, and Mind in St Albans on 1st March 2007, with a remit to provide services across the Mid Hertfordshire area. It has strong governance with Trustees, providing broad expertise, and service user participation. Mind in Mid Herts draws on an active volunteer base and a professional staff team, led by an experienced and well qualified Chief Executive. Our services receive very positive feedback from service users.

Mind in Mid Herts established a successful employment project (Way 2 work) in partnership with Hertfordshire Partnership NHS Trust, and implemented an Exercise to Health project  following a successful bid to become one of 28 local projects that make up the national Moving People programme. Mind in Mid Herts was asked by the Hertfordshire Local Implementation Team to focus attention on service development in North Hertfordshire, particularly Stevenage. Premises were secured in Stevenage and services commenced there in June 2008 – the official opening of the Stevenage Wellbeing Centre by the Mayor of Stevenage took place on 7th November 2008. From a fairly small organisation, Mind in Mid Herts has continued to expand and our Hertford office opened at the end of April 2009 with an official launch at Castle Hall, Hertford with invited speakers which included Alastair Campbell.

Service Provision

Mind in Mid Herts aim to provide services that:

• All persons who live in the locality can easily access.
• Promote Social inclusion.
• Provide facilities for early intervention.
• Work cooperatively with our partners, such as Herts Mind Network, Social Services and the NHS.
• Provide effective support for groups and individuals.
• Support carers.
• Are user led.

Governance

Mind in Mid Herts comprises of a committee, a Management team, qualified staff, volunteers, service users and carers. When designing new services the views of all of the members of the organisation are taken into account. This engenders a culture of openness and integrity which is reflected in our policies and governance procedures. This encourages our ideals of self-help and peer support. We work to challenge discrimination, promote inclusion, influence policy and achieve equal rights through campaigning and education.

Quality

Mind in Mid Herts is committed to providing high quality, user led and relevant services. We follow the guidelines, and are accredited, by national Mind’s quality assessment process. We achieved Mind’s quality standard award level A in November 2005. We were awarded the Mind’s Quality Mark in July 2016. We are proud to say we were awarded the Quality Mark again in 2020. This is a process that is done every 3 to 4 years by National Mind and includes review by someone with lived experience and a member of the quality assurance team from National Mind.

We have a team of professionals who offer services including Counselling, Peer Support, Group Therapy, Computer Skills, Employment Advice, Befriending and Training. All services are designed to encourage personal development, social inclusion, employment and general public awareness of mental health issues.

Volunteering

Without volunteers Mind in Mid Herts could not maintain the levels of service that it currently provides. Induction, training, support and supervision are provided for all volunteers.

Working in Partnership

Mind in Mid Herts is committed to working in partnership to deliver the services required, and to maintaining and developing links with statutory and non statutory organisations.