Touchstone have galvanised the expertise of the Live Well Leeds partnership to support the residents of Leeds by taking a Community Leadership role.     Touchstone’s Your Space team have also developed and printed 560 copies of our own older people’s wellbeing pack. This handbook is full of mental health and wellbeing tips, access to financial services, chair-based exercises and quizzes and crosswords. Your Space have printed these packs as some older people are more at risk of digital exclusion. We have also given the wellbeing packs to all 44 neighbourhood networks across Leeds to support the mental health of all the city’s older people, who are at high risk of isolation. The team are now working on wellbeing packs for families, and running a number of their weekly social groups via Zoom. The Community Support Team work using an assertive outreach approach, to promote recovery for some of the most vulnerable and marginalised members of our community. During the Covid-19 crisis they have extended the hand of friendship to their partners in secondary mental health services. CST are now utilising the skills of the team to provide additional mental health support for 60 clients currently held within Leeds’ Community Mental Health Team who have been identified as requiring more support at this time. This will enhance continuing care packages and free up capacity for the CMHTs to deal with more critical clinical care cases.          

Our aim is to continue to provide vital support and services with people, in the way that they would prefer, throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.

Touchstone