Time to Talk Mental Health UK

Time to Talk Mental Health UK is a fully private and confidential Facebook Community. It is open 24/7 for all adults over 18 years who live in the United Kingdom.

The community is highly interactive and fully moderated from 9am to 10.30pm every day. We provide a safe place for people to talk about their mental health in confidence with others who understand.

In addition, we provide events, regular clubs and a library of resources. The community enables consistent support, which is otherwise lacking in the mental health care package.

How does your organisation contribute to preventing suicide and supporting those affected by it?

Our members who are in crisis can post in confidence. Other members (peers) support without judgement and with empathy.

We have an escalation process whereby if other members are becoming anxious, we thank them for their support and inform them we will be private messaging the member to offer one on one support. We do not know the member personally therefore we do not call Ambulance or Police for the member. We encourage them to contact family, friend or the mental health service they have. We have our “emergency contact” list for them to refer to. We encourage all our volunteer moderators to take the NSUN e-learning on suicide prevention. They also all have to take adult and children safeguarding training.

We promote suicide prevention when there are notable events. These are posted on all our social media platforms. We also have sensitive posts about prevention that includes members’ who have been bereaved by suicide. We encourage members who have been in crisis and are in recovery to talk about their experience in the hope this will inspire other members. We have had many members who have been in crisis post that they are so grateful for our group where they can talk in confidence and in a safe place.

What are your current priorities?

We are actively looking for funds in order to continue our positive minds wellbeing programme which is based around the “NHS Recovery Colleges”.  It aims to provide our members with tools to manage their mental health. We are also hoping that funding will be given to offer our own crisis helpline as our members are telling us of the difficulties in getting in touch with mental health and other support organisations who are so busy. We will also seek funding to offer free private therapy for our volunteers who are living with their own mental illness.

What challenges are you currently facing?

Recruiting more volunteers and funding in order to expand on the support we provide our members.