About Us

Rural Mental Health Matters (RMHM) is a Dorset-based, national Social Enterprise, focused on tackling mental and physical health inequality. Where people live and the disabilities they live with should not be a barrier to accessing care and support.   

Access to help at the right time is key to reducing stigma, raising awareness, breaking down barriers, and above all, saving lives.

Our unique and proactive whole-self approach to wellbeing ensures that businesses and organisations see positive changes in key metrics like:

Staff absenteeism

Workplace productivity

Staff happiness

Internal workplace culture

Effectiveness of outreach efforts

Uptake of services

Problem-free deployment of outreach programmes

Why have a whole-self wellbeing approach? What affects us physically can, and does, affect us mentally and visa versa. 

Take cancer, for example. According to Cancer Research UK, 1 in 2 of us will get cancer at some point in our lives. This is 50% of the population, 50% of your staff, customers, and their families. Although cancer is considered a physical health issue, it has a huge effect on people's mental health. Even the word cancer is scary, isn't it? Yet, the mental health impact is largely overlooked by professionals. When people feel supported emotionally, it has a positive overall impact on their mental health, and wellbeing. 

By working with organisations and businesses, we help them ensure they are providing an inclusive, accessible and equitable service or support, for their staff and their customers, benefitting the whole community.

We are the only organisation that represents the rural voice for England and Wales. As we grow, we will look to include more countries, as we know that the huge challenges & barriers that those living in rural communities face, is a global issue. 

 RMHM's expert services include working closely with businesses and organisations who currently provide mental health & physical health support services. Helping to 'rural proof' support/services from planning to delivery stages. 

Rural proofing is simply about finding the best ways to deliver the right support/services, at the right time, in rural and remote communities, and to include proactive early intervention. It also aims to ensure that services/projects and policies are designed so that they reach rural communities and are suited to rural circumstances. We call this being rurally inclusive. 

We are currently working on our bespoke Rurally Inclusive Accreditation scheme, for which organisations and businesses can apply. This will be the 'gold standard' to attain and adhere to, for any business or organisation to show they are providing a truly accessible, inclusive, and equitable space and service. If you would like to be one of the first to hear about this then please leave your details with us.

Our longer term goal is to develop and deliver a range of rural mental health and wellbeing outreach projects, including mobile outreach. This will be somewhere people can pop in to a friendly, accessible location, close to their home, and learn about local support/services in their local community. 

Outreach projects will provide a free to the public central "hub" of information, for all things mental and physical health and wellbeing. They are a low-cost, high-impact solution that reaches those who need us, much earlier. Awareness is key because when people don't see a service, they believe it doesn't exist. This leads to increased stigma, and people only reaching for help when they are at or approaching crisis. For many people, this is sadly too late. 

1 person dies every 40 seconds, to suicide. These are all preventable deaths, which is why the work we do is so important.

Above all, RMHM works hard to change perceptions to break the silence. Mental health and other disabilities are not about statistics, after all, we all have mental and physical health. That's why we say it's everyone's business.

The services we offer set up your business or organisation, no matter how large or small, to provide an accessible, inclusive, and equitable experience for your staff and customers.