A wellbeing group announced last week that it had set up a support cafe in Okehampton to help residents with their mental health.
The community cafe, located at 14 St James Street, is now up and running and provides a wide range of services including mindfulness, art therapy and anxiety management to help reduce social isolation and provide stigma-free support for those struggling.
Registered manager of the cafe, Emma Hawkins said: ‘This all kind of came about because we set up a Mental Health Outreach Service about a year to 18 months ago and we knew that there were a lot of people who were struggling in the local area and things were obviously only going to get more difficult for people. And we are in a rural area. We know that the farming community network has an awful lot of people with mental health as number one on their priority list.
‘It’s been a bit of a mission of ours that we wanted to set up a community hub in Okehampton because there isn’t anything really very local to the area.
‘It is open to all members of our community. and anybody who is sort of struggling with their mental health and wellbeing.
‘But it’s open to all the public to be able to pop in and sit and have a chat with somebody and hopefully reduce some of the social isolation and loneliness that people are feeling.’
The cafe will also be running public health clinics in order to reach people who may otherwise be difficult to contact and will accept referrals from GPs, social services and the Devon Partnership NHS Trust.
One of the cafe’s key aims is make Okehampton a suicide safer community, said Ms Hawkins, as incidents of people struggling with their mental health increase. Ms Hawkins explained it could be that up to half the population will suffer with mental health problems during their life.
She said: ‘We know that about one in four people experience mental health issues throughout their lifetime, but actually, it’s probably closer to two in four now and suicide rates have gone up, particularly in rural areas.
‘We’re really looking at the whole of our community - how we can actually support people to identify what their strengths are and how to support them and hopefully more resilient community.
‘It’s for people who are feeling lonely or who might just need a bit of practical support - that whole thing of physical and emotional and social thing.
‘That’s what we’re trying to do - to offer it to everybody in the community but people can literally just drop in for a slice of cake or a nice breakfast as well.’
The cafe will run sessions from 9-10am and 4-5pm but will be open to the public between 10am and 4pm from Monday to Saturday inclusive.