Joint Working

Leeds Mind in Partnership

Leeds Mind has for many years pioneered a partnership of equality approach to service delivery. Our services which are delivered in partnership with other agencies are:


Information for Mental Health

Information for Mental Health (IMH)
This collaboration dates from 1997 when Leeds Social Services agreed the secondment of the project manager to work in Leeds Mind. We already housed the IMH service at 157, Woodhouse Lane, and now have a full-blown project with 3 staff all producing high quality information products to meet a range of needs both for professionals and for service users. The range of products includes:

  • A full Leeds-wide Directory of mental health services (both available electronically and in hard copy)
  • A Quick Guide for easy use by service users and carers
  • An information pack for people being admitted to Hospital

IMH was short-listed for the 2005 NIMHE award for collaborative working.

CHOICE (Creative Health Options in Community Environments)

This joint project, between Leeds Mind (one of our day services, Ashwood) and the Mental Health Trust (one of their CMHTs), began with a multi-sector working party in 1998. This group drew up plans based on a comprehensive consultation exercise with service users and the project was finally established in the summer of 2002 in Clarence House, Horsforth. The co-location of the two services has had many benefits for service users and the effectiveness and joint working of the services have been greatly enhanced by the collaborative. The work of the project has been recognised nationally and is considered a fine example of modern, seamless service delivery.

Community Arts

This project grew out of a partnership between ourselves and Touchstone, a sister mental health organisation in Leeds. The service is the teaching of art skills to people who have had mental health problem. It is our view that the visible improvements in people’s mental health are a result of a greater capacity to express themselves through the visual arts and through the recovery which this enables.

Working Minds

Our most recent collaborative service, Working Minds began to support people back to work in April 2008. It is a joint service working closely with sister voluntary agencies in Leeds (Community Links, Touchstone and St Annes) to deliver ambitious targets as part of the City Council's Access to Employment work and helping the City meet some of its social inclusion targets. The Working Minds team work alongside Dove Employment and Training to act as a virtual employment team for people with mental health problems.