Community Mental Health Fund for Young Adults – UK

Deadline: 14-Aug-23

The Community Foundation for Staffordshire is inviting applications for the Community Mental Health Fund for Young Adults.

The Round 2 grant, (the current round), will seek to support young adults with Severe Mental illness (SMI) from one or more above under-represented groups and will support them to access to services, support them to express how services could be shaped to improve experiences and goals for people from that under-represented group.

Priorities

• Beneficiaries they can support:
  • In the second round of grant funding there will be system-wide focus on young adults (16-25).
• Priority Aim 1
  • Projects that support the development of resources which enable/support the transition from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) to Adult Mental Health Services (AMHS) aimed at Young adults (16-18) and their family/carers.
  • Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services provide help for young adults suffering a range of difficulties. CAMHS are specialist NHS mental health services for children and young adults. They offer assessment, diagnosis, treatment and support for young adults who are experiencing problems with their emotions, behaviour or mental health. When a young adult reaches the age of 16-18 they may be offered support if required through adult mental health. There is a lot of evidence that suggest young adults and their family/carers often struggle to move between services, and in particular that they are poorly supported when they are referred by CAMHS to AMHS. Adolescence is a period of intense change for young adults.
• Priority Aim 2
  • Targeted approaches for young adults in the following groups or communities to encourage access to adult mental health services:
    • Gender identity issues
    • LGBTQ+ communities
  • They are looking to work with organisations with significant experience of working with young adults (16-25) with Severe Mental illness from the above groups or communities who can help them to access Adult Mental health services. The above groups or communities are less represented or form a smaller percentage within secondary care mental health caseloads when they compare these groups or communities within the Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent population as a whole and often present to Mental Health services for the first time when they are severely unwell and require support from Mental Health in-patient facilities. For example – project they would like to see include work young people with gender identity difficulties or within the LGBTQ+ community have problems accessing adult services because of their own individual difficulties or awareness training with practitioners within Mental Health service.
• Priority Aim 3
  • Peer support networks supporting transitions (CAMHS to AMHS, CAMHS to Primary Care, CAMHS to Community provision) for Young adults and their family/carers.
  • Additionally – Applications which demonstrate co-production or lived experience will be encouraged
  • Definition of Co-production – is when individuals influence the support and services received, or when groups of people get together to influence the way that services are designed, commissioned and delivered. Lived experience participation refers to the many ways people with a personal experience of mental illness, service use and recovery are participating in the design and delivery of mental health services.
  • The panel are looking to fund new and innovative projects, applications to support existing services and costs will not be eligible.

Funding Information

• £1000 min – £20,000 max
• The length of project is Inclusive of mobilisation, delivery and outcomes, 12 months to mobilise and deliver the grant scheme once awarded.
• Repeat applications to the Grant Scheme over subsequent rounds of funding will only be considered where there is a notable expansion of a piece of work or a significant new development that builds on the initial grant funding awarded, this will be subject to themes in subsequent grant rounds.
• Where groups are asking for part funding, applications need to be clear as to where groups are sourcing the remainder of the funding and provide assurance that the project is viable within timescales.
• Grants to support existing services will not be eligible.

Geographical Focus

They will support organisations based in, or working for the benefit of people in the following local authority areas:

• North Staffordshire – Including Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough and Staffordshire Moorlands District and Stoke-on-Trent
• Southern Staffordshire – Including Lichfield District, Tamworth Borough, East Staffordshire District, Stafford Borough, South Staffordshire District, Cannock Chase

Types of Organisation they Will Fund

• They will support the following types of organisation:
  • Constituted Voluntary groups
  • Constituted Community groups.
  • Registered Charities
  • Social Enterprises
• Limited companies are not eligible to apply to this programme.
• Please note that organisations must have been established for longer than twelve months to apply.

For more information, visit Community Foundation for Staffordshire.