How it all started…

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…

Well, actually, in Nottingham and about 20 years ago, the NHS boasted some excellent facilities for adults with mental ill-health. Just around the City we had in-patient wards at Queen’s Medical Centre (QMC); the day hospital for adult mental health was also located at QMC; there was an NHS day centre on Broad Street offering, among other things, a safe space, support, and various activities and just off Mansfield Road, where it meets the ring road was the Social and Practical Activities Network, known to all as SPAN.

SPAN had an international reputation for the role it played in recovery, rehabilitation and the care and management of peoples’ mental health. It offered nationally recognised qualifications in everything from IT and horticulture to catering, plus basic skills in maths and English. Along with a whole host of other occupational therapy activities.

Sadly, despite the protestations of the people who relied on such services to keep well, these facilities were all axed under the guise of “efficiency savings” and the occupational therapists and assistants who ran the groups were made redundant.

Fortunately, members of the IT group at SPAN did not take the closure lying down. Their leader succeeded in finding an alternative venue for the group and managed to squeeze some start up funding out of the NHS trust enabling the group to continue independently, using facilities at Aspley Training and Community Centre. They named themselves FOCUS@Aspley.

By a stroke of good luck, another organisation using the Aspley centre was the wellbeing charity, Experts By Experience. Also focussed on mental health, Experts specialised in advocacy and delivering WRAP, the internationally recognised recovery tool, Wellness Recovery Action Planning.

As the two groups got to know each other they realised they had much in common and against a background of increasingly difficult fundraising conditions it was decided that the two organisations should merge.

And so it was that in February 2013, Nottingham Focus On Wellbeing was registered with the Charity Commission. We’ve had to change venue a couple of times in those ten years and the NFOW bank balance hasn’t always been as healthy as we would like but we have managed to keep going, meeting our aims of promoting mental and physical wellbeing; supporting those experiencing mental health difficulties and battling the isolation and stigma of mental illness.

Here's hoping for another 10 successful years.