The Afiya Trust, a leading BME health organisation has organised a series of free public meetings on a major new government consultation on how mental health care should be provided for the nation over the next ten years.

Events planned for London, Liverpool and Birmingham are set up to inform minority communities across these three major cities about the Department of Health’s new plans set out in their New Horizons strategy.

The Afiya Trust will gather peoples perspectives which will help establish Afiya’s mental health vision for the future, as well as gain responses from delegates on the major new themes set out in the New Horizon’s strategy which will feed into Government policy.

These consultations currently offer the only forum where ethnic minority communities can learn exactly what the New Horizon’s strategy is as well as how to get involved in the consultation process. This will be conducted through a series of workshops such as Service User Forum; Carers; Personalisation; Criminal Justice and Partnership working and Different approaches to Mental Health well-being. In addition there will be an online survey on the consultation which can be accessed via the Afiya Trust website (www.afiya-trust.org).

The day will consist of speakers including, The Afiya Trust’s Chief Executive Patrick Vernon, Melba Wilson, Mental Health Equalities Programme Lead at the National Mental Health Development Unit and  in London and Jim Foulds, Deputy Director for the mental health at the Department of Health in Birmingham  as well as service users and frontline mental health workers.  There will also be a panel discussion on Stigma and the Media at each of the events made up of anti-stigma organisations, journalists and service users.

With the New Horizon’s strategy due to close on15th October, these three national events offer the only opportunity for the community to hear from experts about what these new plans may mean for the future.

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The Afiya Trust is a national charity based in London that works to reduce inequalities in health and social care provision for people from racialised communities. The Afiya Trust generates, supports and maintains national and local networks concerned with the promotion of BME health and community care equality issues including the National BME Mental Health Network. The charity produces research and disseminates information to the health, social care and BME health sectors, and also liaises with central government departments to ensure that BME issues are addressed at policy level.

New Horizons is a new government strategy that will promote good mental health and well-being, while improving services for people who have mental health problems. The new strategy focuses on improving equality of access to high quality care and includes a social justice perspective. It will build on the National Service Framework for mental health which comes to an end in 2009.