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(Left) Sam Starling from Coventry Mind, Toby Arnold Chair of Warwick Sports Club, People Arches Ltd founder Dawood Ibtehsam, have joined forces to raise awareness of the mental health service [BBC]<\/p>\n
Mental health support that started at a McDonald’s drive-thru in Warwick now has a new home at a local sports club.<\/p>\n
Last year, support was offered in the car park of the McDonald’s in Emscote Road, providing a one night-a-week service, which is now set to operate from the town’s sports club.<\/p>\n
The Safe Haven Coventry and Warwickshire service is an out-of-hours service run by mental health charity Coventry, Warwickshire and Worcestershire Mind.<\/p>\n
Sam Starling, from Mind, said ”It’s quite an unusual way to deliver this sort of mental health service in such a public space, but what we’d realised previously was that the service was quite isolated in a different part of town.”<\/p>\n
Mind also found that moving to a more prominent location in the town made it easier for people to access support.<\/p>\n
”They knew what Mcdonald’s looked like, they knew where they could park. They didn’t have to say to anybody ‘I’m going to see somebody about my mental health’ they could just say ‘I’m going to Mcdonald’s,” said Ms Starling.<\/p>\n
“So that was a really positive insight that kept us motivated to keep going with a slightly different way of delivering a service.”<\/p>\n
The move to the sports club was prompted by the winter weather.<\/p>\n
‘Community at the heart’<\/p>\n
The town’s Mcdonald’s, owned by franchisee Dawood Ibtehsam, 43, said he was pleased the collaboration had gone well.<\/p>\n
“We’re over the moon that our vision for the partnership… has become a reality and has proven to have helped people who needed it most, as well as to raise awareness for the service,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Community is at the heart of what we do at People Arches and the fact that we have provided a safe place for people to seek support is exactly the kind of thing we want to do to give back.<\/p>\n
“We’re looking forward to continuing the project and exploring other ways we can help the community in Warwick.”<\/p>\n
Toby Arnold, chair at Warwick sports club, said the club was pleased to help out.<\/p>\n
”The opportunity came to work with Mind and the Safe Haven [team] which seemed to fit perfectly, and now it’s been running a couple of weeks,” he said.<\/p>\n
“So we’re feeling very comfortable with it, and it’s an opportunity for the local community to benefit and maybe even some of our members, we’ll just have to wait and see.”<\/p>\n
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