Mental health advocate Lee Payton works with various groups across the town to create a collaborative approach to men’s mental health.
Since January, Lee has been collecting weekly attendance figures from several men’s peer-to-peer support and wellbeing groups across Warrington.
Whilst the original aim was to have a better understanding of how many men were accessing support within the community, the growing figures gave Lee the opportunity to demonstrate the collective impact of local organisations.
Last week, it was announced that as a collective, the groups who have participated in the approach have reached a total of 9,001 attendances since the beginning of the year.
This includes 948 first-time visits to groups across the town.
The ‘No Wrong Door’ initiative has been embraced by a number of men’s mental health groups across Warrington. (Image: Lee Payton)
These figures represent attendances rather than individual people, as some men attend regularly or access more than one group.
The ‘No Wrong Door’ initiative centres around the idea that groups should work together to improve mental health support within Warrington.
Lee said: “It should not matter which door somebody approaches first. What matters is that they are treated with dignity, listened to and helped towards appropriate support.
“We have some fantastic organisations across Warrington, all offering different forms of support for men’s mental health.
“But no single organisation can provide everything somebody might need, and we shouldn’t expect them to.
“What we can do is make sure we understand what each other offers, communicate more effectively and help men find the support that’s right for them.”
Lee is clear that the best way to ensure better mental health support for men across Warrington is to ensure that groups are always working in collaboration rather than competition.
Warrington has a number of organisations which offer men the opportunity to connect, talk and improve their mental health and wellbeing, each taking a completely different approach to how they do so.
Looking forward, Lee invites all Warrington-based men’s mental health peer groups to work with him on the ‘No Wrong Door’ initiative.
He is keen to stress that organisations are not expected to change how they operate, give up their independence, or formally merge with other groups.
He said: “I’m not asking organisations to change who they are or stop doing the fantastic work they’re already doing.
“I’m asking them to recognise that we can achieve more by working together.
“Individually, the groups are great, but together we could be unstoppable.”