People in North East Wales deserve access to mental health support no matter who they are

People in Wales deserve access to mental health support – ‘no matter who they are, or where they are’ – including those based in Flintshire and Wrexham.

That’s the message key decision makers around mental health in Wales were given at the launch of this year’s Mind Federation in Wales’s annual impact report, ‘Mental Health is Everything, Everywhere, Everyone’.

And Michelle Collard from North East Wales Mind was among those who helped to deliver that message at the event, held to highlight the vital services 15 independent Mind charities in Wales provide, alongside national information and support from Mind’s helplines and online peer support platform.

Covering the period April 2024 to March 2025, the latest Mind Federation in Wales impact report, ‘Mental Health is Everything, Everywhere, Everyone’, shows that within that time:

• Local Minds delivered more than 160 different services to communities and supported 32,246 people with their mental health across Wales.
• Volunteer efforts meant £670,815 worth of time was generated.
• Mind’s four helplines, which include advice on welfare and benefits as well as emotional support, received 1,710 calls from Wales, with 37% referred to their local Mind for support.
• £332,253 worth of time was given by volunteers across Mind charity shops in Cardiff, Llandudno, Prestatyn and Rhyl, generating £277,770 in income.

Michelle Collard, CEO said the statistics show the many different ways that local Minds including North East Wales Mind – are working to support aims outlined in the Welsh Government’s 10-year strategy for mental health, launched in 2025 with a focus on providing people with the right mental health support, when they need it.

Hosting the event were Associate Director of Mind Cymru, Julian John, and Lexy Gingell, a youth peer service designer from the Mind Our Future project. 

Lexy said:

Mind Our Future acts as a way of presenting young people and their voices…I think it’s needed now more than ever. Young people deserve a chance for mental health support – no matter who they are, or where they are.

Julian John, Associate Director at Mind Cymru, added:

We all want to see a mental health system that works for everyone, and we’re fortunate to have a dedicated mental health strategy here in Wales to support this. It is only through the hard work of staff, volunteers, campaigners and supporters within our communities that we can ever hope to achieve these aims.

It’s been both touching and poignant, therefore, to gather together and collectively acknowledge the impact that Mind continues to have on both a local and national level and bearing the wider ambitions for mental health we have as a nation in mind.

Mind Cymru’s latest annual impact report ‘Mental Health is Everything, Everywhere, Everyone’ can be read in full in English here and in Welsh here.