Ham Friends - Service Closed

Centre details

• Address
  Little House, Ham Close, Ham, TW10 7NU
• Telephone
  020 8332 7404
• Manager
  Helen Robinson
• Email
  hamfriends@rbmind.org
• Opening Times
  • Service Closed

Ham Friends Overview

Ham Friends has been running as an open access drop-in service for a number of years based within the Ham. It used to employ two members of staff, all whom have experience working with vulnerable adults. Ham Friends as the drop in service closed in January 2010, non withstanding the heritage and impact this service has had on the community.

Over the years there have been changes in the services RB Mind have provided, as we have adapted to successive changes in national and local policies for mental health services.

One important strand in our day services work for many years has been the running of  this ‘drop in’ services. Apart from this service we also currently also run The Vineyard (in Richmond), the Social Centre (in Richmond) and Mind n’ Mortlake (in Mortlake) (for more information on these services please click here). We also have Lots a Plot, an allotment project, a People’s Network supporting a number of independent peer groups, and a Time Bank, enabling people with mental distress and others to exchange their skills and time to help one another, both individually and collectively (for more information on these services please click here).

This is a period of great change in the national and local vision of how mental health services should be shaped and coordinated to meet people’s needs. The aim of day services in the community is leaning more towards an emphasis on individual support in order for a person to achieve their own goals and aspirations. This is coupled also with the move beyond segregated buildings and the support for more peer led initiatives. For the last two years, influenced by this Recovery approach, RB Mind has been trying to increase user involvement in the running of our drop ins, increase the number of user volunteers and, more recently, encourage Time banking.

The timing of this decision to close down the service that operated within Ham Friends  was also much influenced by our current financial problems. Many of our historical drop ins have always relied on our limited unrestricted income to keep going, and that, in these difficult times, does not now stretch to make them sustainable. We have had to make significant savings in staff time but doing so aiming to use staff time we can afford more constructively, this done supporting a peer group approach to socialising and activity drop in sessions based in community venues, and using staff time to also provide more individual support to help people achieve their own goals in life. Our financial situation remains difficult, however we still need to do more to restrict our spending and increase our unrestricted income in order to safeguard our future. 

This change is a crucial one for the longer-term viability of RB Mind and to enable us to move towards the new vision for mental health services. We believe that moving beyond buildings to offer more tailored services within the wider community for individual clients, at the same time tapping into users’ experience and capability to provide a peer led programme of sessions for socialising and activities, will mean more people can benefit, whether from individual support or through the confidence and experience of responsibility they will gain in running their own sessions. 

For more information about the changes at RB Mind please click on the news section of our website - for a direct link please click here.

Also if you are interested in other activities that are tacking place during the day please click here for our calendar page where you can download the latest version of What's On.

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