Express has been catching up with the island’s charities to find out how the past year has gone and what their greatest wishes are for the year ahead.
Focus is a Jersey charitable organisation working to improve the lives of islanders affected by severe mental illness and their families.
Co-founder Stephen McCrimmon shared the charity’s highlights of this year, and hopes and wishes for next year…
What have been the highlights of 2025?
Our ‘Human to Human’ event with Canon Conor Stainton-Pollard talking about living with severe mental illness and how we can support one another as a community.
The launch of Jersey’s Bipolar Support group, which meets on the last Tuesday of every month at 6.30pm at the Listening Lounge.
Training more mental health first aiders in our community, and celebrating five years old as a charity in October.
The launch of the ‘Change Minds’ project in collaboration with Jersey Archive. This was a project in a culture therapy program run by us and Jersey Heritage that helps islanders living with a mental illness explore local archives, research past patients of St Saviour’s Hospital, and respond creatively to these stories, fostering community and understanding through history, art, and support. Participants researched 19th-century asylum patients, creating art and displays showcased at the Jersey Archive to promote positive mental health awareness.
What has been the greatest challenge?
Some of the biggest challenges continue to be with funding and stigma, and both can be linked.
Whilst many charities struggle under the current financial climate for funding, raising funds for a charity concerned for those affected by severe mental illness, including the family, can be difficult.
The stigma that still exists for those living with illnesses like schizophrenia, bipolar disorders, psychotic disorders and severe depression and anxiety disorders is very real and plays a significant part in individuals fulfilling their potential.
There is still many people who don’t understand the difference between mental health and mental illness.
We deliver training on this subject, see how ‘muddied the water’ is with people’s understanding of this.
When applying for sponsorship or companies to financially help, the stigma on mental illness can play a part as well are not a charity supporting people with mild to moderate mental health problems.
And what is on your charity’s ‘wish list’ for 2026?
Firstly, I wish that more islanders would view our website and find out what we do.
Make a pledge to find out more about severe mental illness, sign up to one of our courses, put forward our charity to your workplace to support our work in the coming year.
We are a small but incredibly passionate charity with many years of experience in the sector.
We wish for people to find out more about us, our mission, our evidence based approach and the outcomes we have achieved, and get involved in our journey!
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