A history of Mind

Note: The language and names used throughout this factsheet are those current at the time: for example, Mind was originally known as ‘The National Association for Mental Health (NAMH)’ or ‘the Association’; in 1972, the name ‘MIND’ was adopted; and then changed again in the nineties to ‘Mind’. Also, some of the language used to describe mental distress, would not now be acceptable, but was current at the time in question

Origins

Mind was was established as The National Association for Mental Health in 1946 by the merging of three major mental health organisations. These were:

the Central Association for Mental Welfare (established in 1913) led by the pioneering Dame Evelyn Fox, this organisation worked through local groups of volunteers to help mentally handicapped people

the National Council for Mental Hygiene (established in 1922), which had a strong educational bias and stressed the social causes of mental illness

the Child Guidance Council (established in 1927), which set up the first child guidance clinics and launched training courses for their staff.

Between them these organisations had a fine tradition of working in the mental health sector. They were responsible for a series of important firsts, including the first homes for mentally handicapped people, the first school counsellors, and the first training for child psychiatrists, psychiatric social workers, educational psychologists and teachers of mentally handicapped children.

The amalgamation was recommended by the Feversham Committee on voluntary mental health associations, which reported in 1939. The formal merger had to wait until the end of the Second World War, but the organisations worked together during the war through the Provisional Council for Mental Health. The Government asked the Council to take on the task of providing a national aftercare service for people discharged from military service on psychiatric grounds. Extended to civilians, it was the beginnings of community mental health care.

The beginnings of the National Association for Mental Health coincided with the development of the National Health Service and the welfare state. It was a period of rapid growth and change. Many voluntary organisations had to redefine their role, as many of the services they used to provide were taken over by the state. In psychiatry, new drug treatments and, perhaps more importantly, campaigning by enlightened professionals, meant that many long-stay patients could be discharged, and new patients needed much shorter periods of hospital care. The doors of the psychiatric hospitals began to be opened, and the public took an increasing interest in mental health issues.

Aims

The aims of the Association, as stated in its first annual report (1 April 1946-31 March 1947), were:

to foster a wider understanding throughout the community of the importance of mental health in all the relationships of everyday life, and to establish the principle that its foundations must be laid in early childhood if healthy mental and emotional development is to be achieved
to spread a knowledge of the ways by which mental health may be achieved and maintained
to provide and encourage the provision of courses, lectures and conferences for the general public, and for various groups of professional workers dealing with mental health problems
to encourage and advise on the setting up of training facilities for personnel in the mental health field, and to establish and maintain professional standards of work
to encourage and promote the establishment of treatment and training facilities for adults and children suffering from mental and nervous disorders or who are mentally subnormal or defective or who present behaviour problems
a) to supply information as to existing facilities for the prevention and treatment of mental and nervous disorders
b) to give an advisory service on schools and homes for individual children and adults suffering from such disorders or from mental defect
c) to provide and promote community care for persons handicapped by mental or nervous disorder, including epilepsy, or by mental subnormality or defect
to promote international contacts with mental health organisations throughout the world, to assist in the organisation of world mental health congresses, and to promote friendly international relations.

Structure

Membership

In 1947, membership of the Association cost one guinea per year (£1.05).

At this time, members of the council were all medical and associated professionals, representing organisations such as the Institute for the Scientific Treatment of Delinquency, the Magistrates Association and the Royal Colleges of Nursing, Physicians and Surgeons (the Royal College of Psychiatrists did not yet exist).

Staff

During this period, the staff at the Queen Anne Street office was led by a medical director (until 1953) and a general secretary. The departments included a library and information service, residential services, social services, and training and education. Staff included psychiatric social workers and educational psychologists, and there was a panel of medical consultants who could be called on for their expertise.

The local associations

Although some local mental health groups existed before the NAMH was set up (Cambridgeshire Mental Welfare Association, for example, was formed in 1908), the development of the local associations movement really dates from the early 1960s. By that time it had become clear that the statutory services could not meet all the needs of people who were experiencing mental distress or had learning disabilities. As a result, the NAMH strengthened its campaign for improvements at a local level. The resulting publicity attracted many people to the mental health movement, and local associations affiliated to the NAMH sprang up throughout England and Wales.

Training and education

The Association ran courses for, among others, doctors, educational psychologists, psychiatric and social workers, health visitors and teachers.

At this time, the NAMH worked with people with learning disabilities, as well as those with mental health problems. Its courses for teachers of children with learning disabilities were for some years the only courses available. These training courses were gradually phased out during 1970 to 1971, following the hand over of responsibility for the education of mentally handicapped children to the Department for Education from the Department of Health. Colleges of further education gradually adopted their own teacher training courses.

Services

In 1946, the NAMH ran (in the language of the time) 11 agricultural hostels for mentally handicapped men, two homes for mentally defective children, two holiday homes for mental defectives and mental hospital patients, and one convalescent home for epileptics. The following year, a second convalescent home, an approved school, a home for pre-delinquent children, and a home for old people, were added.

Other than Feversham, a school for children with behaviour problems, which opened in September 1969 and closed in 1997, the other institutions that the NAMH was responsible for had all closed or been taken over by other bodies by 1983.

Campaigning – towards community care

By the late fifties, the forthcoming Mental Health Bill, which eventually became law in 1959, was the focus of the Association’s campaigns. In 1958, the Association’s quarterly journal Mental health commissioned articles on ‘The public and the Mental Health Bill’, ‘The Mental Health Bill and the psychopath’, ‘The new Bill and the mental deficiency services’ and ‘The new look in the care of the mentally ill’.

The proposed Mental Health Bill aimed at reorientating mental health services away from institutional care, towards care in the community. The NAMH pledged its support for the Bill, while voicing reservations. There was concern at the lack of provision for adequate mandatory community services and at the failure to address the training of qualified staff. The Association commented on the Bill at the time: “it will not give us better buildings for our mental hospitals, it will not in itself give us the extensive research for which the services crave, and it will do nothing to provide trained staff...(and) it is little more than a half-hearted attempt at promoting the preventive services where the future of this whole subject lies”.

The community care approach was boosted by a remarkable speech made at the Association’s annual conference in March 1961 by the then Minister of Health, Enoch Powell. In this he announced proposals to close the large psychiatric hospitals. Edith Morgan (then the local associations officer) commented later in a BBC radio interview: “We all sat up, looked at each other and wondered what had happened, because we’d been struggling for years to get the idea of community care and the eventual closure of mental hospitals on the map and here it was offered to us on a plate”.

But there was still a recognition within the Association that adequate community care provision was still a long way off. The annual report of 1963 to 1964 says, “…the concept of community care is now no longer new and is generally accepted. But, as we anticipated, it has become clear that local authority provisions are inevitably lagging behind the new demands created”.

Including users

By the late sixties, the Association began to become more of a voice for patients. An article in Hospital world in 1969 expressed the view that the NAMH had: “developed from a polite, reassuring body, uttering words of comfort to all those involved with mental health, to an organisation which is now firmly on the side of the patient and not at all scared of speaking its mind when the need arises”.

The Association’s encounter with the Church of Scientology may have contributed to this shift in emphasis. In 1969, the Scientologists branded orthodox psychiatry as a system of murder, sexual perversion and monstrous cruelty, and the NAMH as a criminally motivated ‘psychiatric front group’. In October 1969, a number of Scientologists applied for membership of the Association, and it became apparent that they were trying to take over. Their membership was withdrawn and, after a court case, the matter was resolved in the Association’s favour. Mary Applebey, who was director from 1951 to 1974, said, perhaps rather generously, in a speech for Mind’s 30^th birthday in November 1976, “Scientology represented in an exaggerated form one aspect of disillusionment with the official mental health line”.

The MIND campaign

In 1971, its 25th anniversary, the Association launched the MIND campaign to clarify its policies and aims, and to attract much-needed funds, under the leadership of the new campaign director, David Ennals. It was the first time that the Association had launched a major public education and fundraising campaign. The MIND campaign had seven main objectives:

to create concern for mental health and to challenge apathy and neglect
to overcome ignorance of the origins of mental disorder and its treatment
to improve services for the mentally disordered in hospital and community
to support the relatives of the mentally disordered who may need as much help as the patients
to mobilise voluntary help – in psychiatric hospitals, hostels, sheltered homes, in social activities for ex-patients, children’s playgroups and in support of patients’ relatives
to raise funds for the work of the National Association for Mental Health and its local associations – to provide more schools for maladjusted children; more hostels, ‘half-way houses’; day centres, industrial training units and other facilities to aid recovery or retraining
to sponsor research directly and through the mental health research fund.

The campaign was so successful that in 1972 the NAMH adopted the new name ‘MIND’. The logo of the newly renamed organisation was a dove with the name ‘MIND’ in capitals.

At the end of the MIND campaign David Ennals left the organisation to return to Parliament, and Mary Applebey also left after 22 years as director, feeling that MIND should be free to move in a new direction. The new director, Tony Smythe, brought experience in the field of human rights. One new initiative was the setting up of an executive committee, which, “added a degree of immediacy to the running of the organisation”, and enabled staff at all levels to take on more responsibility and participate in the policy-making of MIND. This was probably the start of a process that eventually led to the involvement of service users in management and policy decisions. Another change at this time was the move to new premises in Harley Street.

The change from NAMH to MIND was much more than just a change of name: it was a complete change of emphasis. During 1971 to 1972, the organisation’s objectives were rewritten to stress MIND’s function as a lobbying group, and for the first time support for the patient’s family became a specific aim. In 1974, three strategies were given priority:

MIND was to establish more regional offices in order to cover every part of England and Wales, and more support was to be given to local MIND associations
three of MIND’s residential establishments were to be transferred to other agencies – in future projects were to be of a “pioneering, innovative, and experimental nature”
the advisory service, which was dealing with an increasing number of legal and welfare rights queries, was to be expanded.

Following this last decision, the legal and welfare rights service began in 1975 with the appointment of MIND’s first legal officer, Larry Gostin, who wrote A human condition (1959) – MIND’s proposals for reforming the Mental Health Act. An article in Social work today said that this book became a basis for the Mental Health Act Commission Code of Practice: “…the 1983 Mental Health Act owes much to his tenacious battles for patients’ rights and the need for advocacy”. In 1979, the legal and welfare rights service became a fully-fledged legal department and began to take test cases.

Mind in recent years

Campaigns

The original MIND campaign lasted from 1971 to 1973, and was followed by many others.

1976 Home from Hospital – highlighting the housing problems faced by people with mental health problems
1977 Rehabilitation – demanding more and better services, and employment opportunities
1979 Alert! – highlighting the needs of elderly people who are mentally infirm
1981 MIND in Action
1983 to 1987 Tranquillisers – aimed at raising public awareness of the problems associated with benzodiazepine drugs (such as Valium) and the difficulties people experience coming off them
1983 Manifesto for a New Mental Health Service – Common Concern – with the goal of developing a comprehensive local mental health service
1986 A Better Life – designed to “create a climate of outrage about the lack of resources for the development of a local network of care”
1988 People First
1992 Stress on Women – to raise awareness of sexual harassment on psychiatric wards, the problems of mixed wards, and issues for mothers
1994 Breakthrough! Community Care – promoting a user-centred holistic approach to community care
1997 Respect – focusing on the discrimination faced by people with mental health problems
2002 My Choice – aiming to widen the choice of treatment for people with mental health needs
2003 Benefits – drawing attention to the difficulties mental health service users face in claiming social security benefits
2004 Ward Watch – campaigning for better conditions in hospitals.
2005 Access all ages – for better mental health services for older people
2006 Building solutions – about mental health and the built environment, including both hospital and work settings
2007 Ecotherapy – the green agenda for mental health

Many of these campaigns have led to significant breakthroughs, in prescribing practice, government policy, and in encouraging new understandings of mental health and the issues faced by service users. Successes have included the Home from Hospital campaign, the Yellow Card Scheme (part of the Breakthrough! Community Care campaign) and the Mind Inquiry – Creating Accepting Communities (part of Respect).

Home from Hospital

The 1976 Home from Hospital campaign led to increased information about existing housing projects and provided the stimulus for many new ones; doubling the accommodation available in the community. By November 1976, the local MIND associations had provided an extra 130 group home places, to add to the 800 already in existence.

Other housing schemes involved the Housing Corporation and housing associations, and adult fostering. A joint project with Shelter investigated the possible use of short-life property for people leaving hospital. MIND was heavily involved in the preparation of two Granada television programmes, as a result of which many offers of homes were received from the public.

Yellow Card Scheme

Mind’s Yellow Card Scheme was set up as part of the Breakthrough! campaign. The idea was to give users of psychiatric services an opportunity to report on the side effects of their medication. The card was based on the official yellow cards doctors use to report on side effects of drugs to the then Medicines Control Agency (MCA), but also asked about how much information people received at the time their drugs were prescribed, the help they received from their doctors, and the efficacy of their drug treatment. Copies of the returned cards were sent, at their request, to the MCA.

A first report was produced in 1996, and a further report in 1998. The scheme was relaunched in 2000, with the specific aim of seeking more information on prescribing practice for people from Black and minority ethnic communities, and a report was published in 2001.

Mind has continued to press for mental health service users to be able to report side effects of drugs directly to the Medicines Control Agency. In 2003, following reports of problems with the antidepressant drug paroxetine (Seroxat), and two television programmes highlighting the nature and extent of the problems, Mind’s Chief Executive, Richard Brook, was invited to be on a committee reviewing the use of SSRI antidepressants. In 2004, he resigned from the committee, saying that the (by now renamed) Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency had deceived the public by not revealing all that was known about these drugs and allowing them to be prescribed in a dangerous manner, with incomplete information. In 2005, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency launched a trial scheme for users of medicines to report adverse effects directly, and this scheme was made permanent in 2007.

Mind Inquiry – Creating Accepting Communities

This inquiry into the stigma and discrimination experienced by people with mental health problems, and their relatives and friends, was set up as part of the Respectcampaign. It sought to consider:

the experiences of people with mental health problems, in particular the extent to which they are discriminated against and the extent to which they are socially excluded by society
what measures are needed to protect those with mental illness against discrimination and prejudice
initiatives that have taken place within the mental health and other fields that have demonstrated effectiveness in overcoming discrimination and social exclusion
whether a code of practice could be drawn up from those successful initiatives in order to influence government policy and practice.

The inquiry panel was chaired by Lincoln Crawford and included Rabbi Julia Neuberger, Darcus Howe, Denise Platt, Ivan Massow, David Crepaz-Keay, and Baroness Pola Uddin. The inquiry report, Creating accepting communities: report of the Mind inquiry into social exclusion by Sara Dunn, was published in 1999.

Phase two of Mind’s Creating Accepting Communities work was the Social Inclusion Initiative, which had the aim of developing measurable criteria to create models of mentally healthy living. The Initiative looked at the components that help to improve the quality of life for people with enduring mental health problems. These included issues of race/culture/diversity, arts and sport, employment, education and training, and housing and neighbourhood. The models were developed in consultation with other sectors, including local authorities, education, employment and public health bodies. The work began with a pilot project, developed in Merton during 2000. This project centred around a cyber café, to promote access to the Internet and develop mental health service users’ computer skills.

Structure and networks

Regional offices

The MIND office in Wales opened in 1972 and was renamed Mind Cymru in 1997. In 1976, the Northern regional office opened, and by 1979 there were MIND offices in Trent, Yorkshire, and the North West. In 1982, West Midlands MIND opened and the Trent and Yorkshire offices combined. South East MIND opened in 1984, starting off in Harley Street and then moving to City Road. In 1986, South West MIND opened; it was renamed South and West Mind in 1999. In 2000, the regional offices were closed down, leaving the two national offices in England and Wales.

The local Mind associations

There are now about 160 local Mind associations affiliated to Mind. Local associations have grown in the scope of their activities, as well as in their numbers. Today, they run housing schemes, day centres, social clubs, and many other projects for users and carers. Each year the work of the local associations is acknowledged by the Mind Good Practice Awards.

In 1999, Mind’s internal structure was changed, and a local Mind support team was set up to improve liaison between the national organisation and the local associations.

Mind Link

The Mind Consumer Network was set up in 1987 to inform and advise Mind on the experiences, views and opinions of service users, and to have a direct route into policy development. The following year, the Network was renamed ‘MINDLINK’ and had doubled its membership. It formed a consumer advisory panel with members from the regions, reporting to the council of management. By 1993, there were over 1,000 members, and Mind Link was becoming increasingly influential, being asked to write training manuals on user empowerment and to help with the work of the Mental Health Task Force. Membership continues to grow, and there is now a list of user/trainers available to provide training on mental health issues.

Rural Minds

Rural Minds was started in 1997, with the aim of combating the disadvantages experienced by people with mental health problems who live in rural areas in England. A review found that people in mental distress in rural areas face stigma, lack support structures and have limited access to information about what services are available. The review also found that women and people from Black and Minority Ethnic communities are more at risk of mental health problems.

Rural Minds set up a national resource centre for rural mental health, with a library of practical resources and reference materials. Information and training were offered to volunteers and professionals, and a network of individuals, statutory and voluntary organisations in rural communities is being developed, influencing purchasers and providers of mental health services by working with user networks.

Connecting Minds, a teleconferencing scheme to enable people in remote areas to hold travel-free meetings, was started in 2001. The programme started in Herefordshire, Shropshire and Northumberland, and included partner organisations.

Since April 2004, Rural Minds’ work has been integrated into Mind’s core activities, so that rural issues will be evident in all areas of its work.

Diverse Minds

Diverse Minds – set up in 1997 and still running - is an initiative aiming to help make Mind’s policy and practice more responsive to Black and Minority Ethnic communities. Its functions are to:

be integrated into Mind and its policies and campaigns
act as an information and contact network for Diverse Minds members and related organisations
put forward suggestions for Mind’s future work
have one co-opted place, with voting rights, on Mind’s Council of Management
participate in Mind through regional forums in the (then) six English Mind regions and Wales
promote, encourage and support training on race and cultural awareness in Wales and the English regions
provide/promote training for Black and minority ethnic workers, carers and service users/survivors.

Projects

Changing Minds (1998-2000)

Changing Minds developed from the Avon Measure, a user-centred approach for assessing needs, created by South West Mind in partnership with representatives of users, survivors, the voluntary sector and professionals from Avon Health and Bristol Social Services. The Measure is an assessment document filled in and owned by the user, offering a chance to describe the help they would like. This covers 25 topics, including housing, money management and mood swings.

Changing Minds’ objectives are to:

strengthen and enhance the ability of statutory, independent and voluntary agencies a) to deliver service user-centred needs assessment in their own services, and b) to develop services that more fully reflect the needs and expectations of mental health service users
empower service users, their advocates and befrienders to achieve responsive and relevant services from all community agencies.

Training, information and publications

Training

While training for teachers was phased out in the early 1970s, Mind’s training courses have also developed in response to changing circumstances and now include legal training courses, mental health awareness, working with postnatal depression, and seminars on specific subjects, such as psychiatric drugs and help for those who hear voices.

Information

The information service has gradually developed over the years, answering calls from members of the public, mental health professionals and mental health service users. Information is also provided by letter, and latterly by email. In 2003, the information service was outsourced to Broadcasting Support Services (BSS) in Manchester, with backup from Mind head office, where a specialist library is maintained.

Publications

In the early days of the Association, its publications mainly related to childcare. Mind has been innovative in developing materials for school children on mental health. In the late 1970s, several friezes were published, designed to create an opportunity for teachers to talk about mental health in the classroom. The bird and the word, materials for mental health education in secondary schools, was first produced in 1998.

The Association’s original quarterly magazine was Mental health, which cost 5/- per year, or 2/6 for members. Openmind is now Mind’s bi-monthly magazine. Designed for people who use mental health services and the people who provide them, it has a readership of 11,000.

The list of materials produced by Mind has gradually expanded over the years, and now includes many award-winning booklets on many different subjects related to mental distress. Mind also runs the UK’s only specialist mental health mail order service, selling a wide range of publishers’ titles.

During 2003, Mind adopted a new logo and brand for all its publications.

National awards

Mind runs a series of national awards, designed in part to highlight good practice and to gain publicity for mental health issues.

Mind Book of the Year/Allen Lane Award

The Mind Book of the Year Award was started in 1981 by MIND and the National Book League, in memory of Allen Lane. The prize is awarded to a book, either fiction or non-fiction, published during the past year, which deals with the experience of emotional distress and fosters a deeper understanding of mental health. In 2000 and 2001 it was funded by the Royal Literary Society, and in 2002 by Abbey National. In 2007 it was sponsored by BT.

1982 The art of starvation, Sheila Macleod

1983 Annie’s coming out, Rosemary Crossley and Anne McDonald

1984 Depression: the way out of your prison, Dorothy Rowe

1985 Art as healing, Edward Adamson

1986 A woman in custody, Audrey Peckham

1987 Talking to a stranger: a guide to therapy, Lindsay Knight

1988 The minotaur hunt, Miriam Hastings

1989 Out of mind, J Bernlef

1990 No winner

1991 The trick is to keep breathing, Janice Galloway

1992 The catch of hands, Benedicta Leigh

1993 50 years in the system, Jimmy Laing

1994 Scar tissue, Michael Ignatieff

1995 Mustn’t grumble, Ed. Lois Keith

1996 Phone at nine just to say you’re alive, Linda Hart

1997 Push: the life of Precious Jones, Sapphire

1998 Skating to Antarctica, Jenny Diski

1999 Remind me who I am, again, Linda Grant

2000 Making us crazy, Herb Kutchins and Stuart A. Kirk

2001 My name is Gabriel, Kate Rankin

2002 The noonday demon: an anatomy of depression, Andrew Solomon

2003 Will the circle be unbroken: reflections on death and dignity ,Studs Terkel

2004 Giving up the ghost, Hilary Mantel
2005 The cruel mother, Siân Busby

2006 Borrowed body Valerie Mason-John
2007 Living with mother Michèle Hanson

2008 The Father I had Martin Townsend

2009 The Boy with the topknot Sathnam Sangheera

2010 Sectioned: a life interrupted John O’Donoghue

2011 Diary drawings: mental illness and me Bobby Baker

Mind Journalist of the Year Award

1995 Cal McCrystal

1996 David Brindle, The Guardian

1997 Euan McGrory, The Northern Echo

1998 The Big Issue

1999 Roger Dobson, freelance

2000 Peter Tory, The Express

2001 Adam James, freelance

2002 Sarah Boseley, The Guardian

2003 Sophie Goodchild, Independent on Sunday

2004 Simon Garfield, freelance

2005 Joanna Kowalski, Nottingham Evening Post

2006 Emma Forrest, Health Service Journal

2007 Derek Draper and Dr Cecilia d'Felice, Psychologies magazine

Student journalist of the year

2007 Helen Thompson, University of Cardiff newspaper, Gair Rhydd

Bigot of the Year Award

1995 Jaci Elliot

1996 Lenny Lottery, The Sun

1997 Martin Sharpe, The Sun

1998 Andrew Mosby, Time Out

1999 Roger Todd, Sunday Express

2000 Paul Gilfeather, The Sun

2001 David Mellor, People

2002 Nigel Nelson, The Sunday People

2003 David Mellor, The Sunday People

Mind Champion

In 2004, the Bigot of the Year Award was discontinued, and in its place a Mind Champion Award was started. Readers of Openmind were invited to nominate the person who, in their view, made the most important contribution to challenging discrimination against people with mental health problems during the past year.

2004 Frank Bruno
2005 Joanna Bennett and BBC Radio 4’s The Archers
2006 Peter Campbell (Mind Diamond Champion), mental health system survivor, activist and writer.
2007 Stephen Fry
2008 Liz Miller
2009 Alastair Campbel
2010 Rachel Perkins

This factsheet was written by Katherine Darton, and updated 2012.

Appendix – officers

Patrons

1946 HRH Princess Marina, the Duchess of Kent

1968 HRH Princess Alexandra, Lady Ogilvie

Presidents

1946 the Rt Hon R A Butler (d.1982)

1990 Lord Ennals (until his death in 1995)

2000 Lord Bragg (Melvyn Bragg)

2011 Stephen Fry

Chairs

1946 the Rt Hon the Earl of Feversham (until his death in 1963)

1963 Lord Balniel MP

1969 Christopher Mayhew MP

1978 Lady Bingley

1984 Lord Ennals

1989 Timothy F Durkin

1994 David Peryer

2001 David Henry

2012 Ryan Campbell

Vice Chairs

1946 Lady Norman

1962 Lady Adrian

1966 vacancy

1967 Dr David Clark

1975 Charles Clark

Dr Douglas Bennett (exact date not known)

1984 Dr Hugh Freeman

1988 Mike Lawson

1994 Judith Morgan-Freer

1995 Lisa Haywood

2006 Alison Cowan and Keith Cornford

2012 Alison Cowan and Lesley Dixon

Treasurers

1946 Sir Otto Niemeyer

1964 RG Raw

1967 JQ Hollom

1975 Charles Clark

1978 Michael Edwardes-Evans

1987 Rev Jim Moore

1996 Roy Daniels

2003 John Tomlinson

2006 Maureen Dickson

2011 Mike Starkie

Directors/chief executives

1946 Miss M C Owen (general secretary; there was also a medical director)

1951 Mary Applebey

1974 Tony Smythe

1982 Christopher Heginbotham

1989 Ros Hepplewhite

1992 Judi Clements

2001 Richard Brook

2006 Paul Farmer

Mind's senior management team

The Senior Management Team have overall corporate responsibility for Mind’s strategy, leadership, management and organisation performance. The team focus at a strategic level on the business of Mind and on the delivery of its activities.

Paul Farmer CBE - Chief Executive Officer

Paul Farmer has been Chief Executive of Mind, the leading mental health charity working in England and Wales since May 2006.

He is Chair of the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (ACEVO), the leading voice of the UK’s charity and social enterprise sector. Paul is also a trustee at Lloyds Bank Foundation which invests in charities supporting people to break out of disadvantage at critical points in their lives.

Paul is Chair of the NHS England Mental Health Taskforce - bringing together health and care leaders and experts in the field, including people using services, to lead a programme of work to create a mental health Five Year Forward View for the NHS in England.

Paul has an Honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of East London, is an Honorary Fellow of St Peter’s College Oxford and The Royal College of Psychiatrists, and was awarded a CBE in the New Year’s Honours 2016.

Paul Ward - Chief Operating Officer

Paul has nearly thirty years’ experience in the mental health field having managed mental health services and commissioned mental health services. He has served on a number of government working groups in the mental health field, and early in his career lead a major mental health hospital re-provision programme.

More recently Paul has joined the board on a mental health NHS foundation trust in a non-executive director capacity. He has also been a non- executive director on a strategic health authority and has held senior management positions in both the NHS and charity sectors.

Paul joined Mind from Terrence Higgins Trust, where he had been Deputy Chief Executive since 2000 and Acting Chief Executive. He brings with him a wealth of experience in charity sector leadership, as well as around community mental health strategy and service provision planning.

Andrew Vale - Managing Director of Mind Retail

Andrew is responsible for the strategic direction of the 160 Mind shops and for developing new income streams through other trading platforms. Mind Retail is maximising the brand opportunities offered by its high street presence and is planning an extensive programme of new shop openings and refurbishments.

Andrew has a retail background which blends commercial with the charity sector, having worked for Marks and Spencer, Birthdays, British Heart Foundation and Age Concern England (latterly as Head of Retail at the merged charity Age UK).

Andrew plays a prominent part in the Charity Retail Association including time spent as a board member.

Kathleen Miles - Director of Fundraising

Kathleen Miles has been Director of Fundraising at Mind since 2007. Kathleen is responsible for the direction, development and delivery of both Mind’s fundraising and Mind’s Workplace Wellbeing hub. Together the team of c.140 staff raise c.£30m pa from a range of sources, and deliver a range of successful Workplace Wellbeing initiatives, including Mind’s Training and Consultancy and our Workplace Wellbeing Index.

Mind’s Workplace Wellbeing hub also delivers our Time to Change employers work, along with our partner colleagues at Rethink Mental Illness, and a programme to support the needs of Blue light emergency service workers. The team have been heavily involved in supporting our work following the Farmer/Stevenson Thriving at Work report, launched last October.

Kathleen has a voluntary sector background, having worked in a range of organisations over the past 26 years, both in service development and delivery and in fundraising. Amongst her previous roles she has worked at NSPCC and Oxford University. She also holds a MSc in Voluntary Sector Organisation from the LSE.

Karen Mellanby - Director of Networks and Communities

Karen is Director of Networks and Communities at Mind. She is responsible for the direction, management and development of the Networks and Communities Department which undertakes work with the national affiliated local Minds network and supports leadership and social participation in communities. This includes overseeing a range of programmes across the network that promote quality in local mental health service development and delivery; including a quality mark; grants programmes; peer learning and knowledge sharing; innovation and business development; equality improvement and community action.

Prior to joining Mind in 2013, Karen worked at Locality as Director of Programmes, overseeing a range of high profile national programmes to support effective community led development and enterprise. Before that she was Deputy Chief Executive at Action for Advocacy, where she was actively involved in promoting and supporting the provision of independent advocacy for users of health and social care services. She holds an MA in Applied Social Studies and Diploma's in Social Work and Management, and with over 20 years experience working in the voluntary sector, has direct experience of providing services and support for older and disabled people and users of mental health services.

Sara Moseley - Director of Mind Cymru

Sara yw Cyfarwyddwr Mind Cymru ac mae’n un o Gyfarwyddwyr Gweithredol Mind hefyd. Mae’n Cadeirio Cynghrair Iechyd Meddwl Cymru a’r ymgyrch wrth-stigma, Amser i Newid Cymru. Mae’n ymddiriedolwr ac yn Gyfarwyddwr gyda Chyngor Gweithredu Gwirfoddol Cymru (WCVA) ac mae’n Aelod Annibynnol o Fwrdd Iechyd Prifysgol Caerdydd a’r Fro.

Mae gan Sara gefndir ym maes newyddiaduraeth, cyfathrebu ac ymgysylltu â’r cyhoedd a hithau wedi bod yn Gyfarwyddwr Cyfathrebu ar gyfer Llywodraeth Cymru, ar gyfer Ymddiriedolaeth Iechyd fawr yn Llundain ac ar gyfer Centrepoint, yr elusen digartrefedd i bobl ifanc. Mae’n frwd iawn ynghylch galluogi lleisiau a phrofiadau pobl i gael eu clywed a’u rhannu ac ynghylch gwella mynediad at wasanaethau a chymorth effeithiol a thosturiol.

Mae gan Sara ferch 19 oed a mab 17 oed sy’n fyddar, mewn addysg brif ffrwd ac sydd newydd gael mewnblaniad yn y cochlea.

Mae hi’n siarad Cymraeg yn rhugl ac yn dod o Aberystwyth yn wreiddiol.

Sara is Director of Mind Cymru and an Executive Director of Mind. She Chairs the Wales Alliance for Mental Health, and the anti-stigma campaign, Time to Change Wales. She is a trustee and Director of WCVA (Welsh Council for Voluntary Action) and an Independent Member of Cardiff and Vale UHB.

Sara has a background in journalism, communication and public engagement having been Director of Communications for the Welsh Government as well as a large London Health Trust and the young people’s homelessness charity, Centrepoint. She is passionate about enabling people’s voices and experiences to be heard and shared and about improving access to compassionate and effective services and support.

Sara has a 19 year old daughter and 17 year old son who is deaf, in mainstream education and has recently received a cochlear implant.

She is a fluent Welsh speaker and comes originally from Aberystwyth.

Sophie Corlett - Director of External Relations

Sophie Corlett is Director of External Relations at Mind. She has been at Mind since 2002 and is responsible for Mind's policy and campaigning, media, communications, legal and information services. Sophie is also responsible for the delivery of the Crisis Care Concordat project at Mind, a project funded by NHS England to support local areas across England to improve their response to people in mental health crisis.

Amongst other things, Sophie is on the Management Board of the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health which develops guidance on care and treatment for people with mental health problems and is on the trustee board for the Centre for Mental Health. She is a regular spokesperson for Mind in the media.

Sue Baker - Director Time to Change

Sue leads Time to Change, England’s biggest ever programme to end mental health stigma and discrimination. She is responsible for leading and delivering this exciting social movement in England.

Time to Change is an ambitious £20 million programme (funded by the Department of Health and Comic Relief) being delivered by leading mental health charities Mind and Rethink Mental Illness.

Sue previously worked for the leading mental health charity in New Zealand setting up marketing, campaigns and fundraising programmes and supporting the world’s largest campaign to address the discrimination experienced by people with mental health problems, using human rights and mental health promotion models. She also worked for nine years as Head of Media at Mind, in particular carrying out the UK’s first survey of the extent and impact of discrimination (in the mid 90s).

She has also been a Director of a leading substance misuse charity where she was responsible for marketing treatment services, delivering business growth and developing marketing and fundraising.

Zoompad's blog

Saturday 16 November 2019

MIND is not a safe place for child trafficking victims