Our Social Enterprise

Rural Mental Health Matters (RMHM) is a Dorset based national Social Enterprise, focused on tackling rural mental health inequality. Because where people live, should not be a barrier to accessing help and support when they need it.   

We do this by working with organisations, including statutory/non statutory, voluntary, community & social enterprise (VCSE), to help them 'rural proof' support/services from planning to delivery stages. We can also offer ongoing support on a longer term basis if required.  

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 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. 

In addition to this, we aim to develop and deliver a range of rural mental health and wellbeing outreach projects. Somewhere people can pop in, to a friendly, accessible location, close to their home, and find out about local support/services in their local community. Outreach projects will provide a free to the public central point of information 'hub', for all thing mental health and wellbeing. 

Above all, we need to change perceptions (e.g. anti-stigma activities) to break the silence. For many of us mental health is not about statistics, models or innovation but how we can ‘prevent things from getting to the desperate stage’....after all, we all have mental health.

If you would like to know more about how Rural Mental Health Matters can work with you and your community group/project/charity or statutory organisation to help ensure they are rurally inclusive please click here for more information.

Who Rural Mental Health Matters currently works with:

Help and Kindness

Help And Kindness an ambitious project to bring together information about all kinds of help and support that are available to people living and working in Dorset. More information can be found on the Help and Kindness website.

GCC

Since March 2019 I am pleased to say I have been working with Peter Jones, founder of Growing Compassionate Communities (GCC) a new Dorset based national charity, launched officially in Parliament July 2018. Peter is a founding supporter of RMHM. More information on GCC can be found here.