Supported Self Help

Supported self-help is a six-week guided self-help programme that works with you, to support you to recognise and understand your emotions. Over six weeks we’ll give you information, resources and regular phone calls to help improve how you feel.

It can help people with mild to moderate mental health problems, such as:

• anxiety and panic attacks

• coping with grief and loss

• loneliness and feeling lonely

• low self esteem

• low mood and depression

• managing anger

• managing stress

• understanding menopause

The service is for adults (18+) who are experiencing a mild to moderate mental health problem.

You must be living in Wales (or England or the Channel Islands from October 2023).

It’s okay if you have, or don’t have, a formal mental health diagnosis.

It’s okay if you’re on a waiting list for counselling or another form of mental health support such as therapy.

We’re sorry but supported self-help isn’t for people under the age of 18.

You won’t be able to access supported self-help if you are currently accessing another form of mental health support such as counselling or therapy.

Supported self-help is delivered over the phone or via video call, to make it easier to fit around your weekly schedule.

In a recent survey:

• the service was rated 9/10 by clients and nearly all would recommend it

• 84% of people said they had improvement in feelings of anxiety

• 85% felt improvement in feelings of depression

• 83% reported an improvement in their mental wellbeing.

Each week we’ll call to check in on how you’re doing and give you any support you might need. We’ll also send you materials to help you understand and manage your feelings. These might include:

• explaining how and why we experience difficult emotions

• a thought diary

• mindfulness techniques

In your last session, together we’ll review how you’re feeling and talk about the ways the course has helped. We’ll talk about what’s next and if Mind can support you in any other ways. We might also suggest services or activities available from organisations other than Mind.

You’ll have seven sessions, over the course of six to eight weeks.

• One assessment session (40 minutes long)

• Five intervention sessions (each 20 minutes long)

• One signposting session (20 minutes long)

When you sign up, you’ll be given some options for your first appointment, but if there isn’t one to suit you, someone will contact you within 28 days to help you find one that does.

It’s totally free, thanks to investment from Mind and external funders.

You don’t need a GP referral to sign up for supported self-help.

You can sign up online, here: https://www.mind.org.uk/get-involved/supportedself-help/

he webpage contains an interactive chatbot, Limbic, who will walk you through the referral process, helping you understand if supported self-help is right for you.

It will take around 6-8 minutes to complete.

Supported self-help is available in Wales until around February 2024. Supported self-help is available in England and the Channel Islands until around September 2025.

If you have used the service before, you will need to wait at least three months before signing up again, and you will have to access a different pathway from the one you have already taken.

Service users have told us that they still use the tips and techniques months after they have completed the course of sessions.

Please contact supportedselfhelp@mind.org.uk

All 19 local Minds in Wales are delivering supported self-help.

Supported self-help is a one-to-one guided self-help service, not a counselling service. But our practitioners do use counselling-based skills in their support. It incorporates some Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) style tools but also provides other kinds of support.

Another difference is that our sessions are only 20 minutes long (apart from the initial assessment session which is 40 minutes long).

The programme model is the same as Active Monitoring, but the name has been changed in response to feedback from people with lived experience who told us that the name wasn’t clear enough and felt too clinical.

Supported self-help was suggested by one of our focus group participants and received positively by others, who felt that it suggests tangible and involved support alongside a professional who will provide help. They found self-help empowering because it refers to them achieving something and they’ll be in control.

Please contact supportedselfhelp@mind.org.uk