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I am pleased to share our new strategy 2024-27. This is a culmination of 18 months of engagement and conversation, and we have reached out to so many of our stakeholders, whether partners, funders, service users, volunteers or staff, to ensure that we create a truly shared view of our aspirations for the future.
We know that personal connection and authentic engagement is at the heart of Solent Mind’s work and we wanted to apply these same values to the development of our new strategy. We have called our strategy Reaching High, Reaching Far: Growing Together, as this really captures our goals for the years ahead.
Sally Arscott
Our ambition is that our ‘organisational tree’ will have deep roots aligned to our values, a stronger trunk able to weather storms, many branches of mental health and wellbeing support, long extending tendrils reaching into our communities, and funding sources that allow us to blossom.
We serve a growing population, currently 1.14m people, spread across Portsmouth, Southampton, and the southern districts of Hampshire. Home to an exceptionally diverse range of communities, we serve urban and rural areas, areas of affluence and deprivation, and a broad range of cultures and ethnic groups. From this diversity stems a variety of needs, experiences and barriers to accessing mental health support.
Poor mental health has become an increasingly acute issue, exacerbated by levels of deprivation, a lack of funding and capacity, and long waiting times among local health services. In Southampton, self-harm rates are almost 3.5 times higher in the most deprived areas, and loneliness among young people, especially young women, has risen by 5% compared to 2018. For those unable to work due to their mental health, hospital admissions have doubled to 12.7%. Hampshire is home to a considerable population of serving and veteran military personnel, primarily located around Fareham , Gosport and Portsmouth.
In this new strategy, we respond to these challenges and tailor our support to improve our reach, remove barriers to access, and meet the unique needs of our communities. At the same time, despite a growing population and growing levels of mental health need, we do not predict the same growth in income we have seen in the past. Instead, we will need to work across our organisation, and with partners, to identify new ways of working to maximise our collective resources.
We will provide accessible mental health and wellbeing support to anybody who needs it.
We will deliver services that are inclusive, effective and tailored to meet individual needs.
We will develop, support and inspire our staff and volunteers to thrive and deliver the goals of our organisation.
We will actively seek, secure and manage resources to respond to community needs.
Our organisation will be resilient, effective and sustainable.
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