"Last year in Great Britain, 28 million working days were lost through work-related ill health."

Who we work with

Open Mind works with a range of partners and colleagues from private and public sector organisations and is a member of the following groups:

The Enfield Mental Health Users Group (EMU)
An independent user group that seeks out and promotes service users' views on mental health issues. EMU also seeks to promote and ensure the best treatment of mental health service users and to promote better understanding of mental health problems by challenging tokenism and ensuring that everyone is respected as an individual.

The Waltham Forest Disability Providers Forum
A sub-group of the Local Strategic Partnership Employment & Skills Forum comprising members from approximately 30 local disability service providers, statutory and voluntary sector organisations, business facing organisations and service user groups.

Haringey Welfare to Work for Disabled People Partnership Board
This program has a number of active components covering Supported Employment; Barriers to Employment research - this is beneficiary centred research focused on the disabled person's experience of attaining, retaining and/or losing employment; Project co-ordination and monitoring; and Awareness training - is developing a program of Disability Awareness training for mainstream providers and employers to be delivered by disabled people. This will raise awareness generally and create employment opportunities.

Routes2Employment
Covering 8 boroughs in NE London, this project is a result of collaboration between two Mental Health NHS Trusts in 2004. It is a joint NHS Live project focusing on mental health and employment issues and sets out to:

  • Lead by example as exemplar employers recruiting and retaining staff who had used or continue to use mental health services.
  • Deliver services that support mental health service users with their vocational aspirations.

For more information, please visit the project website
www.routes2employment.co.uk

SEETAG Skills, Enterprise & Employment Thematic Action Group (Enfield)
Participation to this forum gives Open Mind an opportunity to keep abreast of local developments and to contribute to the disability employment agenda.

National Employer Engagement Network Forum
Open Mind is pleased to be part of this national forum which tests and informs government policy. As part of the National Social Inclusion Programme, this forum is a conduit through which members are able to access updates on local and national initiatives both current and forthcoming. The Engaging Employers network forum meets every 3 months and is chaired by Simon Francis of the National Social Inclusion Programme.

Mindful Employer
The MINDFUL EMPLOYER initiative promotes awareness of mental health at work and provides support for businesses in recruiting and retaining staff. With its roots in South East England, it is an initiative that is gaining more widespread recognition. Open Mind is proud to be associated with this initiative and is the representative for the London area.

For more information, please visit the project website
www.mindfulemployer.net

"Three in five people with mental health issues say they would not tell people about their own or another's mental distress for fear of discrimination"

"Stress-related absences account for half of all absences from work"