Arthur Ellis: Mental Health Support has been providing one-to-one mental health support to people in Milton Keynes and further afield since 2018.
Although it was originally set up as a not-for-profit Community Interest Company (CIC), CEO Jon Manning has now completed the long process of establishing the Arthur Ellis Mental Health Foundation, a charity designed to re-write the UK’s mental health system.
Arthur Ellis provides support to those in the community who would otherwise have limited or restricted access to services in the community, which, according to Jon, ‘covers pretty much everybody’.
He said:
“We take anybody from the age of eight upwards, I think our oldest client is in their 90s. Even under the age of eight, while we don’t work with them individually, we always try to provide support for family members.
“Being a registered charity unlocks funding for us. While previously clients would have been paying VAT on sessions, we can now re-invest that money into growing the service, something that the charity has already begun.”
Over the last year, the team at Arthur Ellis have been working on building a new independent referral system which will transfer the power to the individual when booking their first session with one of the Arthur Ellis mentors. The charity already boasts a ‘no waiting lists, no thresholds’ policy which it upholds across all 27 GP surgeries it works with.
This means that the system has been working to get clients into their first session within two weeks of referral. The new system will provide clients with the opportunity to book then and there.
Arthur Ellis has multiple ongoing projects, including a monthly radio show with MKFM’s Lia Christodoulou, and a Summer Festival, which will be held in Great Linford Manor Park. It is also investing in technology for the future, including an online training programme for its clients to offer support in the transition after their work with mentors.
Jon added:
“Investing in ways to make our service provide support for longer and transition clients from fully supported to independent is imperative. From a business perspective, we are trying to work ourselves out of a job.”
With the development of the charity, Jon has split the work of Arthur Ellis into The Arthur Ellis Foundation, and Arthur Ellis, the CIC. The CIC will continue its work in the realm of workplace mental health training and consultancy which channels funding into the Foundation.
Jon and the team at the CIC have worked with the likes of Costa, British Gas, WD40, RHA, DPD and The Open University to provide training and consultancy for their teams. Working with a four-step system, Jon develops a bespoke structure for each team, considering their unique working conditions and working to provide practical, reasonable and effective solutions to encouraging positive mental health growth and wellbeing across companies.
“We know for a fact that wellbeing workshops aren’t working,” said Jon. “There have been some interesting studies recently that have highlighted that we need to focus on removing barriers in order to provide people with the opportunity to make themselves well, rather than shoving gym memberships and fruit bowls at them!”
To find out more about Arthur Ellis and the work the charity does across the community, visit www.arthurellismhs.com or find it on LinkedIn @ArthurEllisMHS.
