The Ross-on-Wye Mental Health and Well-being Group which began last year is meeting on February 8th, at The Prince of Wales Pub, Walford Road, Ross for a 6pm start.

The Group was born out of a desire to identify what the local community would like to see in place to support their mental health needs. The Steering Group was formed at the end of 2015, following a public meeting in November of that year, set up by Public Health (which is part of Herefordshire Council, to explore how best to capture and then support the mental health and wellbeing needs of the people of Ross and the surrounding areas.

At the meeting next Wednesday, the Steering Group will report back on its work looking at a variety of issues. Anyone with an interest in mental health is very welcome to attend the meeting, especially those who use or provide mental health services. At the meeting they will highlight their work over the past 12 months and set out some of the priority areas they are currently considering concentrating on over the coming months.

These may change following the meeting as they want to hear and respond to people’s views. They also want to hear from local residents about what is working and how they can build on the many positive initiatives that are in place. They also would like to hear suggestions on how you think services can be improved.

The Ross-on-Wye Mental Health and Well-being Group is a pilot scheme, which if successful will be rolled out to other towns across Herefordshire.

The Steering Group is also supported by Herefordshire Clinical Commissioning Group and has attracted a variety of members, both representing organisations in Ross and also individuals with experience of mental health problems, or of supporting someone with mental ill health.

The main purpose of the Steering Group is to identify the type of services that need to be in place in Ross, to both meet the needs of those people who already have mental health problems and also to look at ways the community can use its resources to keep people in the area as mentally and physically well as possible.

The pilot is also very much about looking at how Ross as a Town might be able to support people who are having mental health difficulties, such as supporting local community services to understand some of the issues that people with mental health problems face and to be proactive in encouraging people with mental health problems to use their services.

To this end they are looking at developing a network of safe spaces for people with mental health problems to use where they will feel welcome. It’s important to realise that mental ill health can hit us all and the rates of mental ill health are very high. Therefore people with mental health problems need to be seen as part of the community and not apart from it.

If you have any interest in the mental health of the Ross-on-Wye community, you can find out more at The Prince of Wales, starting at 6pm on February 8th. If you can’t make the meeting but would like to comment, please send an email to [email protected]