Mind welcomes new Chair

Posted Friday 16 November 2012

After nine years our current Chairman, Dave Henry, has taken the decision to step down. Dave will hand over the role to Ryan Campbell on 1 December 2012. Ryan has been a Trustee with Mind for six years and the Vice Chair, Networks and Communities.

Some words from Dave Henry

I have been proud to be a Trustee of Mind since the summer of 1998. For the past nine years it’s been my honour to lead the Trustee body as the Chair. It is with very mixed emotions that I have now decided to step down as Chair, enabling someone else to take up the baton as Mind sets out on the early stages of a brand new, exciting, and ambitious four year strategy.

My time as Chair has been full of mixed emotions. I have often felt extremely proud of what the Mind family does and achieves. I have laughed out loud on so many occasions with Mind staff and users of many of Minds services as we shared our stories. I have been moved to tears on more than one occasion on hearing some of those same stories. Those tears haven’t always been sadness. They have often been in celebration of the ability of the human spirit to lift itself out of utmost despair when offered understanding and support, when treated with respect and dignity, when offered love. All these things I have witnessed in abundance during my involvement with this fantastic organisation in all its facets.

As in all families there were sometimes disagreements between members which need to be resolved in order for the family to continue as a supportive and enabling environment for all its members. Mind has had to deal with some of these over the years, but I sincerely believe that the outcome has been the continuing development of a stronger, more supportive Mind family.

As I step down as Chair I am absolutely delighted that my successor will be Ryan Campbell, currently the Vice Chair, Networks and Communities. Ryan`s commitment to Mind is unquestionable, and under his able leadership and with the support of a hugely talented Executive team and staff group, I am more than certain that Mind and the communities to whom it provides support are in safe hands.

I wish you all the best, and will continue offering my support where possible, particularly as a Trustee of my local Mind in Sheffield. Goodbye and God Bless.  

Some words from Ryan Campbell

Becoming Chair of Mind is an incredible privilege. Throughout my time at Mind I am constantly impressed, and moved, by what the organisation is and does, and what it stands for. We have a strategy in place which seeks to ensure that everybody who needs help gets the right services – not just medical services, but the support required to live a full life; that we stand alongside people with mental health problems to demand respect, rights and dignity, and an end to stigma; and that people should be able to make their own decisions, not have them made for them.  We also say that we won’t give up till we have achieved this, and that, working together, we will be unstoppable. 

That is a lot to live up to, but I feel honoured to be a part of it, and look forward to working with the organisation, its partners, and people with experience of mental health problems, as we continue to move towards that vision.

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