Good Thinking marks 7 years of supporting better mental health and wellbeing for Londoners

There’s no ‘one size fits all’ solution when it comes to health. From talking to Londoners, we know that they want information and support that reflects how they live and what their values are.

We’ve worked with faith and belief communities across London to co-create tailored wellbeing content that reflects the diversity of our city, translated into several languages to increase accessibility and reach. This included collaborating with local councils, GPs, faith leaders, charities and community organisations. We recently updated our faith and belief community mental wellbeing guides to meet the evolving needs of Londoners.

We worked with organisations across the public, private and third sectors to create a mental wellbeing toolkit designed to help employers create a safe and supportive workplace for their people. The toolkit includes a practical guide on looking out for friends and colleagues at work who may be struggling with mental their health as well as resources for employers to use across their own internal communication channels and employee wellbeing groups. 

We created a tailored student resource hub in partnership with students and student organisations, including The Student Room and Young Minds, providing wellbeing advice and guidance on mental health concerns unique to students, such as preparing for college or university and settling in; surviving fresher’s week; as well as support information and resources on money worries.

As part of the student hub, we worked with the Black Students Mental Health Project and London Southbank University to create a library of resources, blogs, podcasts and videos on a range of topics, including: internalised racism; the impact of racial microaggressions on mental health; and handling like a Black Queer student in London.

On a wider scale, Good Thinking has worked with Partnership for Young London (PYL), to engage with young Londoners through the Digital Health Ambassadors programme and ensure that they have a voice in shaping research and policy around mental health across the city. 

Alongside our student hub, we also recognised the need for resources to support the mental wellbeing of younger students and education professionals, such as teachers. We worked with GPs, youth organisations and mental health experts to develop a range of free, NHS-approved resources, including lesson plans to introduce mental health and wellbeing in the classroom and facilitate open discussions. 

We’ve recently started working with 10 voluntary and community sector organisations across the London Borough of Newham as part of the Small Grants Programme. The programme supports participating organisations to better understand the mental health challenges faced by Londoners. The aim is to train community members to be dedicated ‘super users’ of Good Thinking, raising awareness of our service and the mental health and wellbeing resources we provide across the wider community. Feedback will help us to better understand the needs of specific communities across the borough, enabling us to develop our service and ensure that we’re providing Londoners with the mental health support they need.

We’ll be evaluating the Newham project over the next few months with a view to potentially replicating the Small Grants Programme across other London boroughs.