Mindskills East Durham

Mindskills enables people to return to balanced active lives by encouraging social interaction and shared learning wellbeing workshops and peer support groups.

We also have an active volunteer programme, the aim of which is to recruit and train volunteers that can gain expertise and confidence. This is especially useful for wanting to re-engage with work. The service is open to everyone and even those with no desire to volunteer can be a part of this service if they wish to learn more about mental health or be involved in peer support.

The project has a number of strands that are aimed at working with different groups of people in different ways; these are:

Wellbeing Workshops
Delivering wellbeing workshops to help those experiencing mental distress, our wellbeing courses are designed to teach basic information and skills to do with mental health awareness and stress management. Wellbeing courses are available to anyone who would like to improve their mental/emotional wellbeing and not solely targeted towards people who suffer from anxiety, depression, or other forms or mental/emotional distress. The overall aim is to teach people effective skills for self-management and give them the tools to manage their own mental health.

Peer Support Groups
Although developing volunteers is a part of peer support the group is open to anyone and can also be useful to people who want to receive support in a group, develop their social interaction or get back into work. Peer support is a group led by its attendees and supervised by a member of staff who acts as a group facilitator. The idea behind this group is that the attendants act as support for the other members of the group as well as contribute their own experiences and knowledge, while taking part in a variety of activities