So what’s special about Tuesday’s at Mount Wise Neighbourhood Centre ? its home to the Creative Minds Art Group, a peer support group run by local people providing a friendly, informal  space for anyone in the Plymouth area to come along to, especially those who may have mental health conditions

Started a few years ago by Wolfie, Theresa and Annie, this is a supportive, non judgemental space using arts and crafts as the focus. We share, listen, support each other, connecting through our common interests and shared experiences of mental health. Everyone agrees that the focus of art and making things helps clear the mind – we make and the chat flows…. but no skills are needed to join in and every form of art or craft is available from, painting, model making jewellery to even writing stories. We have all benefitted from coming along, it stops our social isolation, it gives us something to look forward to and a place where we can be ourselves – no need to wear a mask or hide. Whether it’s making something or just sitting drinking a coffee, it’s important to let people just ‘be’ and groups like this  are even more important now that mental health drop in services have all but vanished’.

We want to invite others along to join this group and help them to be less isolated when facing mental health conditions- there is no judging here, and definitely no treating mental health with the stigma that many feel is associated with it.

‘We are not medical professionals but we all have our own experiences to draw on which makes us experts in understanding just how important this support is – having someone who understands and has been there, understanding from a place of shared experience, that has truly helped us all’.

The group is family orientated with junior members who come along in the school breaks, we have large , secure outside space that children can safely run around in, we are also planning many events for the future including day trips to art exhibitions, Eden Project and even London,

‘Sometimes I come in feeling like I have the world on my shoulders  but leave feeling so much better’ – this is something we all need in our lives.