James Turton – Founder
The Little Push 4 Good is a new charity on a mission to create a “more active world for better mental health”. We work alongside NHS Talking Therapy to inspire and enable patients to take a positive step towards activities that promote recovery from mental illness. Decades of science proves that physical activity, art, music and learning can promote mental wellbeing, and our unique charity is set up to deliver that. As founder I have a burning personal passion for why having an activity focus is an important part of the mental health recovery jigsaw …. let me explain why.
Our founding story is an all too familiar tragic experience for many. A member of our family struggled with mental illness and made attempts to end their life. A second member of the family has also been sectioned with a serious psychotic illness. Mental illness is a distant concept to many – unless you’ve seen it “up close and personal” it is difficult to convey the tragic impact it has on individuals and their families. We need to stop people getting to that point, and our service is part of the “earlier” intervention answer, alongside NHS Talking Therapy.
Thankfully we found a solution for one of our sons. It came in the form of high quality Talking Therapy and a guitar which has prompted a passion for music which rapidly became a critical immersive hobby when the struggles of mental illness are hard for him to deal with.
I became obsessed with understanding how activities can promote mental wellbeing. Immersive hobbies have a role to play, alongside physical activity and other activities that help to provide a positive purpose, a sense of achievement, distraction and the means to connect with themselves and others. That’s not even mentioning for the many who choose physical activity, improvement in both mental and physical health. Many who we support are very very sedentary and do not meet any minimum requirements for daily movement. Movement can help mental wellbeing.
Whilst our founding story is a powerful personal example of recovery and the role of activity within it, it is not without very strong research evidence. There are over 1000 studies worldwide that prove the mental health benefits of physical activity, art, music and learning. Quite simply they are the means by which we can deliver the NHS “5 ways to mental wellbeing’.
As charity founder my week is usually spent working with beneficiaries to help support them, working with our outreach partner to find people ready for “a little push” and with our supplier partners who deliver outstanding services at outstanding value. The average cost of our support is equivalent to just 15 minutes of GPs time. Think about that for a second. We are delivering impact at outstanding value.
Our charity seeks to inspire and enable people to take positive steps to manage their own mental wellbeing. The people we support often display a lack of energy, poor understanding of the role of activity in mental wellbeing, anxiety and lack of confidence to take a step, procrastination in making decisions and often the lack of financial resources to invest in their own mental wellbeing. It’s a fact that financial deprivation and mental illness are linked with higher levels of illness amongst those who struggle with financial deprivation and inequality. 60% of the people that approach the charity are out of work or on benefits, it’s hardly a surprise that those with meagre resources struggle to access things that might just help them.
Take the person I was supporting today. He was seriously assaulted many years ago and suffered a head injury. He has struggled since that awful night, his social circle shrunk as his confidence melted away. He lost his job and financial independence. His wider mental and physical health deteriorated – it is not uncommon to find the interaction of physical and mental illness in the people we support. This person is living on benefits (£380 per month) and doesn’t even have the funds to keep warm.
He hasn’t had a working boiler for 2 years. He uses foodbanks on a weekly basis. He does not have any resources to invest in something that might promote his mental and physical wellbeing – and specifically, not the bike he wanted to increase his activity levels and improve his means to connect with the wider community. Recovery from mental illness and improving his physical health is his priority, and he recognises this is the foundation stone to regaining employment and financial independence. That’s why in this instance our Little Push can make such a difference. The “ripple effect” of small items and services can at times be staggering and that’s what our Little Pushes provide.
For many the financial enablement we provide is as critical as the supportive “little push” we give into their chosen activity. Today this was one such case where the barrier was money as much as emotional confidence to take a step. They will get their recycled bike within 7 days and we will support the individual into activity adoption over the coming weeks, measuring impact. Activity adoption and improvement in mental health is our simple aim, whilst not always easy to deliver. Money. Unfortunately, I have to obsess about it, as without “fuel in the tank” I can’t help people. After dealing with the above case, I then had a meeting with a corporate supporter. Thankfully there are some corporates out there who have helped us – Kooth is the major provider of digital mental health services to the NHS and they have helped us by co-sponsoring 100 grants for those under the age of 30. I then went on to our plans for a charity walk being led by another corporate supporter – Parker Young Recruitment. Both businesses recognise and align to our vision of how we plan to support people. They know we need a helping hand to deliver our plans. After that I moved onto a beneficiary who was just exiting their 12 week support plan. An exemplar case for the power of artistic pursuits in mental wellbeing.
This individual has suffered with high anxiety and depression, and alongside NHS Talking Therapy has found an immersive passion in watercolour painting. The impact of the activity is staggering, with the therapist reporting it had played an active role in his coping strategy and the beneficiary reporting that it had provided a concentrated focus that delivered a sense of achievement, personal confidence and complete distraction when unhelpful thoughts and emotions were taking over. We provided materials, online learning and art classes through our partnership with York Learning. Collaboration with partners is critical given that we offer a range of over 50 activities for people to connect with. We can’t do it alone as our pathways need to be many and varied. We “don’t push water uphill” – we connect to the individuals needs and wants. That is the critical thing to achieving activity adoption.
The impact we generate from these tiny individual investments is in many cases astounding – helping to deliver physical activity for people who may benefit, connecting people to their wider community when isolated, providing the means to live in the moment and immerse in something positive, learning new skills that provide pleasure and pride in equal measure.
It’s hard starting a new charity. We are very indebted to the support the NHS Team in York has provided us – we would not be doing this without their positivity. But everything starts small. 15 months ago we were a mere “mustard seed” of an idea, determined to carve out a unique role and purpose in a very busy third sector landscape. Today that seed has now germinated and we are laying down our foundation model in York and Selby with the funds secured to support 300 people and build our rollout model. Over the next 2 years we aim to generate the additional funding required to extend our geographical coverage with a plan to extend our outreach further into the Tees, Esk and Wear Valley Mental Health Trust. Deep breath required as some of the areas we now plan to enter have the highest levels of deprivation in the country – we need to be clear on the funding required and find the financial support to deliver it. Demand will be massive and our starting point of York was deliberately “gentle” given our available resources.
Find a unique role that meets a need. Develop a unique model of outreach and support. Help people and prove recovery impact. Get more money. Help more people. I wish it were as simple as that but we know what our task is and our vision is to eventually have this service available to all NHS Talking Therapy patients, not just those in York and Selby. Anybody got £2m spare?
