Fight for the mental health of people living in poverty

What are we doing?

Mind, Citizens Advice, and The Trussell Trust are coming together to support and campaign for people experiencing both mental health problems and poverty.

We’re setting up an advisory group of 6-8 people with lived experience to shape this work.

This is to make sure our campaign reflects the needs and priorities of those experiencing both mental health problems and poverty.

Who can get involved?

If you have the following experience and skills, we’d love to hear from you:

• You have experience of mental health problems and financial hardship, e.g. struggling to make ends meet
• You have recent experience (within the last 5 years) of any of the below:
  • Accessing mental health support
  • Accessing a food bank
  • Accessing advice services, e.g. citizens advice services
• Starting in October 2022 you can spend at least 3.5 hours per month for at least 6 months with the group
• You’re able to share your experience and ideas in a group (in-person/video call)
• You’re able to listen to, discuss and respect different opinions
• You’re able to read and comment on documents (written in English), using Microsoft Word and email.

What will you do?

You’ll be part of our advisory group. As a group member you’ll use your experience of mental health problems and financial hardship to support programme planning.

A key responsibility for the group will be advising on how we bring in the voices of other people with lived experience. The group will run for 6 months - after this we’ll get your input to decide if or how to continue.

Your role will be varied. It might include:

• Participating in workshops
• Identifying themes from research
• Providing opinions on documents
• Meeting and challenging decision-makers
• You’ll also get to know and support each other as a group and learn more about our 3 organisations.

Payment, benefits and support

• £100 per month (based on 3.5 hours per month) = £600 over the 6-month period
• Cover all reasonable travel, childcare and carer costs
• Provide access to internet, data, laptop if needed
• We’ll give you one-to-one support as part of your role – focusing on your wellbeing, what you need to take part fully, and skill development.

How to apply

Please complete the following forms:

• Application form
• Diversity monitoring form

Once completed, please return both to forms to: [email protected] by Friday, 23 September 2022.

We’ll select the group based on your application form, diversity monitoring information and location, to make sure the group represents a diverse cross-section of society across England and Wales.

If you want to discuss the role or application, or need anything to participate fully, please email us at: [email protected]

We’ll email you by Friday, 30 September to let you know the success of your application.

Look after yourself

We hope being a member of the advisory group will be enjoyable and rewarding. But, we also know having discussions and reading about mental health and poverty can be stressful.

While we’ll support you during your work with us, think about how you’ll look after your own wellbeing too. And, if you can, put appropriate support in place.

You might find it helpful to look at our tips and guides for everyday living.