Long Term Conditions

Self-help guides

The NHS have produced a range of self-help guides that can be viewed as a PDF or an audio version. To view the guides please visit the self-help guides bookshelf (opens in new window).

Relaxation techniques

Exploring relaxation can help you look after yourself when you're feeling stressed or worried. Why not try these relaxation routines and see how relaxation can fit into your daily life? Listen to the audio guides here. 

SilverCloud online therapy

SilverCloud courses are designed to help you improve and maintain your wellbeing by changing the way you think and feel about things.

There are several free courses to pick from including positive body image, panic, covid-19, depression, anxiety, stress and many more.

All you need is access to the internet and sound on a computer, tablet or mobile. The programme is flexible so you can use it anytime, anyplace, and anywhere. They feature videos, activities, quizzes, audio guides and your own online journal. Find out more on the SilverCloud website page.

Every Mind Matters

Expert advice and practical tips to help you look after your mental health and wellbeing. Visit the Every Mind Matters website. 

Here2Help (if you live in Worcestershire)

Here2Help is a service that offers support for people of all ages. It includes information, advice, tools, guidance and local support available in the local community. 

Talk Community (if you live in Herefordshire)

Talk Community is helping residents, businesses, community leaders and our council to make Herefordshire a better place to live and work. 

Podcasts

Podcasts can be a really good way of relaxing the mind, listen to features, interviews and a number of people involved in mental health, including people have experience mental health difficulties, campaigners and mental health experts. To find out more visit the podcast resources page.

NHS Support

Self-refer to healthy minds

Our Healthy Minds team are trained and experienced in supporting a wide range of more common mental health issues. Mostly this involves ‘talking therapy’ approaches. Talking therapy could involve group discussion, or more traditional 1:1 sessions. We also provide online courses which the team can guide you through. To find out more about the service and self-refer visit the service webpage.

Qwell

Free mental wellbeing support including online chat and forums. www.qwell.io

GP

Visit your GP practice team to discuss the best options for you, including access to specialist services.

Herefordshire and Worcestershire Wellbeing and Recovery College

Courses and workshops to give people the tools, skills and understanding that they need for their own wellbeing and recovery. Visit the Recovery College website here. 

Employment support (part of the Healthy Minds service)

Mental Health Matters are working in partnership with Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust to provide employment related support to individuals who are accessing Healthy Minds. 

Other local support

The little book of mental health

The little book of mental health is a practical guide for everyday emotional wellbeing produced by Worcestershire County Council.

Herefordshire Mind

We are Herefordshire’s local mental health charity. Our aim is that no one in Herefordshire should have to face a mental health problem alone. Please feel free to get in touch with us anytime. https://herefordshire-mind.org.uk/

Springfield Mind

Springfield Mind is the leading mental health charity for South Warwickshire and Worcestershire. https://springfieldmind.org.uk/

The CLD Trust (if you live in Herefordshire)

Our counselling staff are all professionally trained and qualified and have significant experience and specialisms.  We are able to offer a variety of counselling therapy including brief sessional therapy and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), solution focused therapy, specialist substance misuse and systemic family practice. Find out more on their charity website: https://www.thecldtrust.org/the-cld-trust/

The Cart Shed (if you live in Herefordshire)

Providing activities such as woodwork, coppicing, gardening and cooking can all have an emotionally healing effect. A non-clinical setting helping individuals address and overcome issues they may be finding difficult to self-manage. To find out more visit the Cart Shed website: https://www.thecartshed.co.uk/about

Simply Limitless (if you live in Worcestershire)

The charity provides support to people of all ages in the community with their mental, social and physical health. https://www.simply-limitless.org/

Onside Advocacy

Onside provide a range of support and services to ensure fairness and equality for adults who may be vulnerable, disadvantaged or discriminated against. This includes mental and physical ill health, sensory impairment, learning disability, drug and alcohol misuse, older people, and carers. https://www.onside-advocacy.org.uk/  

Community First

Community First is at the forefront of sustainable, robust community development in Herefordshire and Worcestershire. We specialise in providing high quality advice and support to community groups and organisations, to help them grow and meet the needs of the communities they serve. https://www.comfirst.org.uk/home

Active

We are a vibrant, independent organisation committed to improving the lives of people in Herefordshire & Worcestershire through the power of physical activity and sport. https://www.activehw.co.uk/

West Mercia Women’s aid

WMWA works for a world that is free from domestic abuse and violence against women and girls, where everyone can live without the fear and reality of all forms of violence, abuse and discrimination. https://www.westmerciawomensaid.org/

Relate counselling

Relationship Counselling and Sex Therapy in Worcestershire and Herefordshire. https://www.relate.org.uk/hereford-worcester

Worcestershire Association of carers

The home of support for all unpaid carers in and around Worcestershire. https://www.carersworcs.org.uk/

Drug and Alcohol Support

Worcestershire: https://cranstoun.org/help-and-advice/alcohol-other-drugs/worcestershire/

Herefordshire: https://www.turning-point.co.uk/services/herefordshire

 

National support

Silver Line

The Silver Line is the only free confidential helpline providing information, friendship and support to older people, open 24 hours a day, every day of the year. https://www.thesilverline.org.uk/

The hub of hope

The Hub of Hope is the UK’s leading mental health support database. It is provided by national mental health charity, Chasing the Stigma, and brings local, national, peer, community, charity, private and NHS mental health support and services together in one place for the first time. https://hubofhope.co.uk/

DadPad

As a new dad you will feel excited, but you may also feel left out, unsure or overwhelmed. The DadPad can help by giving you the knowledge and practical skills that you need.  The resource will support you and your partner to give your baby the best possible start in life. https://thedadpad.co.uk/

Reading Well

Reading Well is a national scheme supporting people to understand and manage their health and wellbeing using helpful reading. The books on our reading lists can be recommended by a health professional and taken free of charge from a local library, or users can self-refer and borrow the titles as they would any other library book. 

What is it?

This is a course aimed at people living with Diabetes* and feeling low in mood or depressed.  We understand the huge impact that living with Diabetes can have on all areas of life including the effect on mood and emotional wellbeing.  We also know that keeping our mood as good as it can be, can make a huge difference to managing our physical health. 

Are you living with Diabetes and been:
- feeling low, down or fed up?
- thinking negatively about things?
- struggling with fatigue or sleep?
- feeling your motivation to do stuff is low?
- finding it difficult to concentrate?
- Perhaps you’ve been beating yourself up about things?

If you have been experiencing any of these, this course may help.

What does this programme involve?

This is a virtual course that is structured and based on the principles of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. It is educational in nature, with opportunities for discussion.

Each course is 5 sessions long, for two hours on Wednesdays  1 – 3pm.

How will this help me?

You will learn to understand experiences from a Cognitive Behavioural Therapy viewpoint, explore the impact of living Diabetes (and other long term health conditions) and discuss common features.  You will learn about managing low mood and the vicious cycle of depression, in addition to the boom-and-bust cycles.  You will learn about breaking vicious cycles with behavioural activation and to spot negative thoughts and how to challenge them.  You will also learn more about different emotions and how emotions can affect what we do or don’t do.  We will also spend some time exploring communication styles, improving sleep and relaxation exercises.

Who runs the sessions?

The courses are run remotely by our Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners and we welcome patients with GPs across both Herefordshire and Worcestershire. Our Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners are fully trained in delivering guided self-help treatment based on CBT techniques and work closely with the Worcestershire Diabetes Team.

ALL courses and groups will be run online via video conferencing until further notice. If course spaces are not filled they may have to be cancelled.

* Type 1, Type 2, pre-diabetes and diabetes recently in remission

What is it?

This is a course aimed at people living with Diabetes (Type 1, Type 2, pre-diabetes and Diabetes recently in remission) and feeling stressed or anxious.  We understand the huge impact that living with Diabetes can have on all areas of life including the effect on our emotional wellbeing.  We also know that keeping our stress and anxiety levels as low as possible, can make a huge difference to managing our physical health. 

Are you living with Diabetes and been:
- feeling worried? 
- thinking about things that might go wrong?
- thinking more about worst case scenarios?
- feeling stressed, nervous or on edge?
- noticing tension around your neck and shoulders or other parts of your body?
- feeling anxious or panicky?
- finding it difficult to relax?
- feeling irritated by small things that perhaps wouldn’t normally bother you?

If you have been experiencing any of these, this course may help.

What does this programme involve?

This is a virtual course that is structured and based on the principles of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. It is educational in nature, with opportunities for discussion.

Each course is 5 sessions long, for two hours weekly on Wednesdays  1 – 3pm.

How will this help me?

You will learn to understand experiences from a Cognitive Behavioural Therapy viewpoint, explore the impact of living with Diabetes (and other long term health conditions) and discuss common features.  You will learn about calming anxiety, panic and stress, and the vicious cycles that keep us anxious.  You will explore the nature of worry and uncertainty, learn techniques to reduce worry and feel more comfortable with uncertainty.  You will explore negative thoughts and different emotions, and the effect they might have on the things that we do.  The course also spends some time exploring improving sleep and relaxation.

Who runs the sessions?

The courses are run remotely by our Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners and we welcome patients with GPs across both Herefordshire and Worcestershire. Our Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners are fully trained in delivering guided self-help treatment based on CBT techniques and work closely with the Worcestershire Diabetes Team.

ALL courses and groups will be run online via video conferencing until further notice. If course spaces are not filled they may have to be cancelled.