Thrive LDN is a participation-driven partnership that engages with and responds to the needs and insights of Londoners.
As part of Thrive LDN’s pledge and commitment to redress ethnic inequalities in our mental health systems, we are working with several partner organisations and Londoners to disrupt pervasive power dynamics which currently exist to shift outcomes for racialised and minoritised Londoners.
Partner organisations include, but are not limited to:
Since inception, all Thrive LDN’s activities have been informed by Equality Impact Assessments (EIA). In previous years, we have utilised the assessment tools of partners. However, for 2022/23, we wanted to go a stage further and develop an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Framework for Thrive LDN and accompanying EIA template, to align more explicitly with the Advancing Mental Health Equalities Strategy, and to ensure Thrive LDN and partners are optimally placed to empower those affected by health inequities and support them to influence change through participation.
The EDI Framework has been designed from a complex system perspective, as action on equality, diversity and inclusion is a pre-condition, outcome and long-term goal for public mental health in London. Its principles are interlinked across Thrive LDN’s theory of change, which illustrates cross-collaborative action between individuals, communities, and systems, encompassing all ideologies that advocate equality, equity, intersectionality and the dismantling of oppressive power structures.
Thrive LDN launched a Right to Thrive Innovation Fund at the end of 2021, which was designed to support innovative community and grassroots projects across London which help support the mental health and wellbeing of those who are experiencing higher levels of unfair treatment and discrimination. We received over 100 applications for the fund and following a selection panel and moderation process that aimed to ensure projects served a wide spread of communities across the capital, 14 projects were awarded funding of a total of £120,000.
Based on our research and recommendations set out in the Pandemic Stories report, the 14 projects chosen all aim to improve the wellbeing of people from intersectional and marginalised communities in London ranging from:
Recognising the lived experience of ethnic inequalities in access, experience and outcomes is a fundamental part of Thrive LDN’s approach.
One aspect of this work involves supporting black, Asian and minority ethnic-led organisations to respond to the needs of communities and provide the tools and resources needed to ensure collaboration and to grow networks.
As part of the Mental Health Recovery Mission, the GLA and Thrive LDN are working in partnership with the Ubele Initiative to support the development of bespoke culturally relevant grief and loss training for London’s black and minoritised communities.
This project is linked to the current work of BAMEstream which offers a bespoke black-led bereavement service and a single point of access for black and other minoritised individuals and communities providing access to free counselling.
Thrive LDN has extended the service so that it now offers training to those who support people from black communities including those disadvantaged by virtue of having protected characteristics and from low socio-economic backgrounds living with grief, bereavement, and loss. Participants to the training will be upskilled with a focus on providing interventions that are culturally relevant.
It is evident that the demand on partners such as the Ubele Initiative is significant and presents as a challenge for them to find sufficient time to work together on strategic opportunities. The sustainability and longevity of this work will be maintained through the Mental Health Recovery Mission and the ongoing work of BAMEstream.
As a participation-driven partnership, Thrive LDN supports a community of individuals and organisations from across the health and care system and the voluntary and community sectors who can create the conditions for improvements in Londoners’ mental health.
A key aspect of this is working in partnership with racialised and minoritised Londoners and organisations which support the needs of London’s ethnically diverse population.
A recent example of this partnership approach can be seen in the collaboration involved in responding to the Afghanistan Humanitarian crisis and supporting the mental health of the Afghan community in London.
As part of taking action on this commitment, Thrive LDN utilises the principles of co-production as the basis for all engagement with community partners. Steps are taken to better understand who has power when important decisions are being made, the cultural context and confront processes that do not consider the needs of community partners.
Overall, this approach has transformed the way in which we create and sustain partnerships. In terms of this example, a series of resources have been produced in partnership with the:
It has been challenging to form trusting and equitable relationships with community partners from racialised and minoritised backgrounds, because it takes time for these relationships to establish.
Thrive LDN will be held to account by an Advisory Board with representation from community leaders from racialised and minoritised backgrounds, and by Londoners themselves to ensure the approach continues to disrupt unequal power balances when working in partnership.
Since September 2021, Thrive LDN have been building a coordinated approach to geo-political crises, mobilising a series of response activities to promote mental health and wellbeing in a culturally competent and trauma informed way. Crisis response activities have been co-developed with community partners from those effected by Afghanistan, Hong Kong and Ukraine geopolitics.
Through the development and endorsement of the London Public Mental Health Review, Thrive LDN and partners have identified a series of actions to ensure inclusive and sustainable change in Londoners, their communities and the complex systems which exist across the region.
When considering the actions necessary to influence change for public mental health and the support required to move from current states to the future where progress is made on ethnic inequalities, we have developed a structured approach based on:
(1) interrelated enablers that create the conditions for improvements in Londoners’ mental health – equity, participation and the wider determinants; and
(2) direct action that drives outcomes to improve the mental health of Londoners.
We acknowledge that only when there is collective and sustainable effort to drive equity, enable and sustain active participation, and improve the factors which shape the conditions in which Londoners live, work and grow for all of London’s ethnically diverse population will it be possible to achieve improved opportunity for good mental health and wellbeing.
The work has been in development since April 2021, and was recently discussed by members of the London Health Board. It is too soon to report on the outcome of the work.
Since May 2020, Thrive LDN and partners have established a research and community insights function to:
The aim of this function is to create an infrastructure which brings together progressive approaches to research and policy development. The Public Mental Health Review (mentioned above) sets the right conditions for this through championing the importance of system leadership for Integrated Care Systems, cross-sector working and implementing mental health in all policy initiatives at regional, sub-regional and local level.
Responding to the need to have a pragmatic view of research and intelligence relating to the impact of Covid-19 on Londoners’ mental health and wellbeing, Thrive LDN established a research and community insights function, with a dedicated team to examine the effects of the pandemic on Londoners. This new function informs real-time action to offset and prevent the negative effects of the pandemic and regularly publishes working papers and briefings summarising findings and suggested actions for partner organisations.
So far, on this journey to take action and support the timely and progressive research and policy development, we have challenged the lack of available representative research, data and intelligence of London’s diverse population.
Representativeness has consistently been identified as a limitation across sources of data and information, with a lack of sufficient information available on the needs of different disadvantaged and marginalised communities, including racialised and minoritised groups – and all those with protected characteristics.
This challenge is perpetuated by the acknowledgement and insight of years of structural racism and inequality which have compounded the mistrust, suspicion and fear between marginalised communities and power structures such as government, health and social care or the police.
The Thrive LDN research and community insight function is now an established feature of the public mental health system across London.
Maybe. Thrive LDN is keen to be involved in and represent at the fourth Pledge progress update (with our third report), but we recognise that Pledge signatories from racialised and minoritised backgrounds are best placed to share their insights and updates.
On Thursday 25th November 2021, the Synergi National Pledge Alliance was launched (virtually) in response to Pledge commitment 4: To provide national leadership on this critical issue, which you can find out more about here.
The Alliance’s primary aims are to: