Mind in Bexley and East Kent triumphed
at the Mind Excellence Awards 2024
Mind in Bexley and East Kent is delighted to announce that it has won the Monitoring and Evaluation award at the 2024 Mind Excellence Awards.
The event took place on Wednesday 20th March in Birmingham and Mind in Bexley and East Kent CEO Dr David Palmer (pictured) was delighted to receive the award on behalf of the organisation.
The awards are run by the national Mind charity and recognise excellence among the local Mind charities.
Mind in Bexley and East promotes and publishes research that leads to the development of good practice in services for people suffering from mental distress – in the NHS, in health and social care provision, and highlights the support and the needs of service users and their carers.
The awards judges said: “Mind in Bexley and East Kent has a culture of evaluating impact and undertaking research to establish need and identify people’s experience within services. This has led to the development of a range of support that is relevant, appropriate and effective. It is difficult to overstate the value that research has had in the development of the organisation’s services.
“The charity has carried out significant amounts of research, developed targeted projects and engaged in related policy work. Through original and secondary research, and in collaboration with other agencies, including an academic partnership with the University of Kent and Christchurch University, Mind in Bexley and East Kent has reviewed and evaluated existing practice.”
The Mind in Bexley Research page includes an array of work, including recent research into personal health budgets, home care, social prescribing, peer support, and the experience of young care leavers without secure immigration status.
Talking about the award win, Dr David Palmer said: “We are hugely proud of the research projects that we’ve undertaken and believe that our award win tonight is a vindication of our belief that research should be at the forefront of shaping mental health provision and support. Our commitment to research, monitoring and evaluation has enabled us to deliver services that are appropriate and we know will benefit the mental health of our communities.”
Areas of past research include the Minding Histories Oral History Project – which explored the impact of migration on mental health, a research project undertaken on specialist independent mental health advocacy, research into CBT in children’s centres, research on mental health carers issues and the fascinating “No one knows like we do”: a project which explored the narratives of mental health service users who were trained as researchers.
Mind in Bexley and East Kent is currently working on further research into Personal Health Budgets, Crisis Café Support and Suicide Bereavement Support, as well as a piece of work which explores the impact of Covid on Mental Health.
To find out more about the research that led to this recognition with a national Mind award, please visit our Research webpages at: eastkentmind.org.uk/research and mindinbexley.org.uk/research/
