This document discusses the importance of involving Black communities in mental health services by listening to a variety of community members, designing services that meet evolving community needs and values, delivering services that provide benefits to the community, reviewing services with community input, and addressing critical issues facing the community like family issues, education, substance use, and relationships. Communities should help shape services through events, feedback, and oversight committees.

1. Involving the Black
communities in
Mental Health
services

2. Why ?
♦ Ownership
♦ Relevance
♦ Source of knowledge
♦ Addresses the underlying contributing
factors

3. Be creative about who you
listen to..
♦ Hairdressers and Barbers
♦ Street Cleaners
♦ Churches, Mosques, Gudwaras’
♦ Noise Nuisance – Environmental Health
officers
♦ Shops who sell direct to the community

4. Design – form and function
♦ If we are still designing the same services in
2004 that we were in 1974 something must
be going wrong
♦ Communities have changed – Communities
needs have changed
– The mistake of the Blenheim project
– Mellow, creative entertainment
– Oremi, working with children in care
– Fanon Care, becoming a landlord

5. Delivery – what’s in it for the
community ?
♦ Our buildings stand empty, and
mystified
♦ People always looking for venues for
Births, Marriages and Deaths
♦ ‘Venues that are known and used by
the community are not feared by the
community’
♦ Get to know family, friends and peers –
invite them to your events

6. Review – who’s the piper ?
♦ We are in a highly regulated industry
♦ Invite community to tell you how you are
doing… but only if you are going to act
on what they say
• Open lunches
• Entertainment events with feedback
• Paid rota visits by members of the community
• Committee of elders

7. Critical Questions
♦ What are you doing to prevent family
breakdown ?
♦ How are you responding to exclusions
form schools ?
♦ How are you preventing substance
use/abuse ?
♦ How do you help service users find and
maintain partners ?