Local Minds join forces to become South East London Mind

FOLLOWING the announcement of exciting plans to merge late last year, Bromley, Lewisham Greenwich Mind and Lambeth and Southwark Mind have now officially merged. As a unified organisation, they have revealed their new name as South East London Mind.

The newly formed South East London Mind brings together expert teams from two neighbouring local Minds to provide their life-changing mental health services across all five boroughs of Bromley, Greenwich Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark, working closely with colleagues at Mind in Bexley who provide services in Bexley.

The South East London charity will kick off the new year with 29 services which will all continue to run as they did pre-merger – with no changes to front-line staff.

One change for 2024 is that the charity now offers mental health and dementia training to local businesses in Lambeth and Southwark for a reasonable fee – with all the proceeds going back into supporting the local community through their life-changing services.

Development and Engagement Manager, Liz Pepper explained:

“People often don’t realise that local Minds raise their own funds. While National Mind does some amazing campaigning and provides information to millions of people each year – we, as your local Mind, deliver services in your communities – we work to be there when it matters with our on-the-ground services. We therefore make sure that any money we receive through local donations or through our mental health training is poured back into the local community.”

In addition to providing mental health support South East London Mind also provides much-needed dementia services, including a Young Onset Dementia Activist Group. Recently featured on ITV news, the group is described as a ‘lifeline’ by its members and is entirely funded by local donations.

A future with potential for growth

This local mental health and dementia charity has already won the backing of award-winning Hollywood actor and ‘proud South Londoner’ Cush Jumbo OBE, who was delighted to join their fight for better mental health and dementia by becoming their first celebrity ambassador last year.

With Cush’s backing and the merger’s boost in the team’s expertise, there is a bright future ahead for South East London Mind as it enters the new year as a stronger organisation with greater influence.

Ben Taylor, Chief Executive, emphasised the positive difference the merger is set to make in its first year of operation:

“Our dedicated team of over 250 members of staff and over 200 volunteers are set to support over 11,500 people across the five boroughs in 2024 alone. As a larger organisation, we now have greater potential to respond to the growing need for our meaningful, high-quality mental health and dementia support.”

Interested in the services on offer? Check out the newly launched South East London Mind website.

Any questions? Please email communications@selmind.org.uk.