Purpose

The purpose of the Forum is to act as a vehicle to bring together the main faith communities throughout the country with the world of mental health. Spirituality is not only a vital element in a person’s life experience and mental health but also a major factor in any holistic approach to individuals and their environment.

NSMHF is by title a forum – and those who attend, reflect variously on the actuality of how individuals integrate spirituality to mental health. The Forum therefore wishes to enable space for that diversity to be expressed. The forum recognises the current discourses among religious, belief group and secular lines and welcomes participation from all. The forum includes organised expressions of humanism alongside religious belief in its invitation to participate.

A more detailed explanantion of the purpose of the Forum can be found here

Structure of the Forum

The Forum operates throughout England and Wales and is multi-faith.  It has a Board of Trustees who are responsible for due governance and probity, and who are accountable to the Charity Commissioners in law and to the Department of Health for the application of the three-year grant made in April 2009 under the S.64 grant scheme.

It also has an Executive committee, a sub-group of the Trustees which meets at least twice a year to plan the activity of the Forum, make arrangements for the AGM and develop the work and role of the Forum.

There are representatives from the main nine UK faiths on the Board of Trustees as well as representatives from key mental health organisations. Dr Sarah Eagger and Venerable Arthur Hawes are currently Joint Chairs of the Forum.
 
The Project team staff are project lead Professor Peter Gilbert and two development and liaison officers Vicky Nicholls and Mary Ellen Coyte. All three are part-time.

The official address of the Forum is Spirituality Forum, PO Box 62247, LONDON N8 1BG. For all contacts please email info@mhspirituality.org.uk
  

Forum Activities

The Forum has a number of key activities under the DH-funded programme. These include raising awareness of spirituality in the delivery of mental health services in the 74 Mental Health Trusts, and establishing pilot sites across the country.  The team are seeking to establish a spirituality link person in every Trust. Ideally a Trust is best served by having three people viz. a spirituality lead at Board level, a spirituality lead in service delivery, and a professional spirituality lead like a chaplain.
 
As well as establishing local networks, the team are working to create a regional structure to facilitate communication between the National Forum and Mental Health Trusts and third sector organisations, as well as faith communities.

We connect with the membership of the Forum in several ways. Four afternoon meetings are arranged each year which usually attract between 40/50 people. These are currently held in London: however we also help to connect people to regional meetings taking place where they live, where these exist. This website is another channel for our communication. There is also a database of almost 1000 people. We keep our members in touch with planned meetings via email alerts. To become registered on the database, go to our membership page.
 
Each year a day is set aside in May as a training seminar. In 2010 we joined the first international Conference organised by BASS (British Association for the Study of Spirituality) – May 4-7. For more information about this and our other activities please see our What's On page.

Brief history
 
The Forum was created following work exploring the relationship between religion and mental health initiated by the former Health Education Authority.  After the establishment of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) and the National Institute for Mental Health in England (NIMHE) the Forum began under the auspices of Mentality at the offices of the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health which acted as its secretariat.
 
The Forum was established in 2000 and gained a whole new dimension following the 9/11 destruction of the twin towers in New York.  At the time NIMHE was being established by the government as the vehicle for delivering  modern mental health services and its Chief Executive – Anthony Sheehan – in conversation with Peter Gilbert (the National Lead for Social Care) established spirituality as a stream within the NIMHE Programme.  Like many others they were aware of the vulnerability of Moslems living in this country following the 9/11 disaster.  There was a twin concern both for Islamic spirituality and its proper articulation and the mental health of the Islamic faith community.
 
A more detailed history of the Forum can be found here