A mental health service in Leeds has kickstarted a series of initiatives aimed at helping local people to boost their mental health and well-being. 

Mentally Healthy Leeds (MHL) is delivering a range of social sessions to help people at risk of poor mental health build self-esteem and make new friends.

The sessions include a free gym pass and well-being sessions for people in the community, in addition to a walking group that explores local beauty hotspots such as the Yorkshire Dales. 

Mentally Healthy Leeds also delivers training about suicide prevention and other services designed to help people with low-level mental health problems. In addition, it focuses on removing the stigma around mental health.

Aliya Vasylenko, Administrator for Mentally Healthy Leeds, said: “We aim to give people experience and understanding they can use to prevent problems from developing or becoming too much to handle. Our service is delivered as part of a community development approach. This means that we treat individuals and communities as assets, looking at what is strong rather than what is wrong.”

MHL is part of Touchstone, which provides health and wellbeing services to over 10,000 people across Yorkshire every year. As one of Touchstone’s biggest services, MHL hosts a number of activities and groups such as an English language group, a mums group, and a Women Supporting Women Group, which inspires young women to build a better future for themselves.

It also has a number of other events in the pipeline that are set to be announced this year.

Sarah Horton, a spokesperson for Touchstone, who runs MHL, said: “Mentally Healthy Leeds is a preventative mental health service that works for people at risk of experiencing poor mental health in the city. They support communities and individuals across Leeds to develop and maintain positive connections with each other and have more conversations around mental health. We do this by providing social groups and activities as well as delivering training to reduce the stigma around mental health.”

MHL works closely with Your Space, which also offers a variety of social activities such as walking groups, workshops, and healthy living activities, as well as out-of-hours services in Leeds. 

The service runs in Burmantofts and Richmond Hill, Gipton and Harehills, Farnley and Wortley.