The things that happen when we belong: community, mental health, and what’s coming next
As Wales embarks on a new community mental health journey with Welsh Government’s recently published strategy, we look at why there’s reasons to be hopeful – and the places we can already see change happening.
If we say ‘community,’ what do you think of? Your family, or the people who live near you , or who you run into at a local park or café? People you share a place of worship with, brought together by belief? Perhaps it’s the colleagues you commiserate with after the big new plan at work doesn’t pan out, or the friends that gather round the board game table at a weekend.
Community is all of those things; it’s simply the people around us that we are able to connect with, whether that’s through shared identities, work, or interests. And those connections matter: if we’re surrounded by people who support us and lift us up, we thrive. If we’re isolated and disconnected, we’re much more likely to struggle. We understand this on a basic, instinctive level.
It’s odd, then, that our helping systems around mental health have not grown to hold this idea at their heart. From the earliest days of mental health treatment, the reaction to those of us going through hard times with our mental health is to confine us, in asylums, or on locked wards. That’s echoed, too, in the individualised treatment that is still the norm today: find the problem in the person, treat the signs or symptoms. Draw a line between healthy and unhealthy. Isolate and contain, whether physically, or within the language and stigma that we weave into our societal narrative of mental health.
It’s almost as if these systems are built around a fear that poor mental health is contagious , something to be contained. That we must distance ourselves from anyone struggling, and put them away somewhere safe. But for whose benefit?
The reality is quite different: pain grows in isolation. We’re social creatures.
Community means to me having access to like minded people who come together with shared goals or experiences. Feeling safe in the area where I live and work, but feeling safe mentally as well as physically. having access to services in my area that are easily accessible where I can link in with others and not feel isolated.
– a quote from our anonymous ‘What does community mean to you?” survey; see bottom of page.
Growing together
At Taraggan Community Gardens in Bargoed, a volunteer is concerned. A small patch of wildflowers planted previously isn’t doing so well. She thinks it might be the soil they’re in; they’re not getting what they need from it. So she makes some changes, swapping the soil, adding a little fertiliser, some careful watering. The flowers should have the conditions they need to grow now. They’ll have a chance to thrive.
Taraggan, a project that Platfform works closely alongside, is a vivid example of the power of connection, of bringing people together with shared goals and aspirations. A recent story emerging from our work with the project is that of a woman referred to Platfform via a partnership with Job Centre Plus. Looking to re-find her confidence after leaving a controlling relationship, she has been able join Taraggan as a regular volunteer.
As a result her social circle is growing alongside both her confidence and her herbs. And she’s now able to take advantage of the opportunities around her, like support with her tenancy.
She’s moved from a place of isolation, to one of connection.
Turning instinct into evidence
There was considerable excitement – and some nervousness – within Platfform when the Welsh Government’s draft mental health and wellbeing strategy was on the way. We knew that there was a clear need to move towards an understanding of mental health that places each of us in context; that understood that our wellbeing came from the network of relationships and opportunities that surround us. Or, in a word, our communities.
And the foundations for this understanding were already in place in Wales, including in the Connected Communities strategy that emerged during the first year of the pandemic, when the effects of lost connection were made starkly clear.
So would this new mental health and wellbeing strategy be the step forward we needed it to be? Would we have learnt enough from a global event that held us, literally, at arms-length from each other? The fact that the draft’s launch was to take place in our open-access, community-based mental health drop-in for young people, The Hangout, felt like a positive sign.
When the final strategy arrived at the end of April, it was clear that it marked a significant point in the ongoing journey of a better understanding of connectedness and mental health.
The strategy’s definition of mental health notes how good mental health helps us contribute to our community – and how, in turn, our collective wellbeing is essential to ‘personal, community and socio-economic development.’ It notes, too, the importance of community connection at all stages of life, from early relationships to support during advanced years. And it extends this understanding to wider areas; the recognition of substance use, for example, as a public health issue rather than solely a criminal justice one speaks to the collective factors that influence our mental health.
None of this is particularly new information, of course. The strategy draws on the Marmot Review, the Well-being of Future Generations Act, the World Health Organisation’s work on rights-based approaches, Public Health Wales’ Mental Wellbeing and Health Outcomes, and more. Many of the definitions around mental health, and what actually impacts our wellbeing, closely echo Platfform’s own manifesto.
What’s important here is that the strategy brings together this evidence and turns it into tangible commitment; an official recognition that mental health is not an individualised concern, but a shared issue. Because together, the sources that the strategy draws on back up an increasingly undeniable truth: we’re happier when we feel we belong.
Good mental health is dependent on the building blocks that make up our lives being right. These building blocks include things like safe and comfortable homes, good jobs, enough money to live comfortably, safe childhoods and connections with people in our communities.
– Welsh Government, Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy, 2025-2035, p.17
Making it happen
A large mural stretches from wall to wall. At its centre, a lioness watches over the people that pass by her; her pride. Symbols surround her: a lighthouse acting as a waypoint in darkness, an open door, and two mugs used in a moment of shared reflection.
This painting has been put together by people living in a supported accommodation project Platfform is running in Swansea alongside Beacon, First Choice Housing and City and Council of Swansea. It represents the things that matter to the community that has taken shape there; symbols of individuality and identity that all form part of a greater whole. And by providing people with a secure base – a place of safety to call home – the project helps people have the starting point for being able to be part of the wider community in Swansea too. It’s an upward spiral, or ‘virtuous circle’ – a live example of the joint personal and community development described in the Welsh Government strategy.
Over in Risca, meanwhile, residents have started pulling together a regular community newsletter, and have banded together to work on skip clearances, improving the feel of their neighbourhood. They’ve been supported along the way by our Ein Llais (‘Our Voice’) project, funded by Moondance Foundation. Across Swansea and Neath Port Talbot, our Cwtch project (in partnership with Swansea Bay University Health Board, local authorities and partner charities) is helping people move on from substance use through building better links with the community – a starting point for a renewed feeling of identity and purpose. And volunteers at our Perfect Fit project are helping job interview attendees pick out outfits they would otherwise struggle to afford, supporting them to link back in with the world of work.
(For more on how workplaces operate as communities, and how we’re supporting organisations and business to help those communities thrive, see this blog from Platfform Wellbeing.)
People helping people, supported by projects and organisations with prevention and early intervention firmly in mind – all underpinned by national strategy and policy from a government that knows the value of community for providing the basis for resilience. That’s the dream, but it’s also the necessity; the only way we will see real progress towards a future where fewer people suffer through difficult times with their mental health.
The communities around us – where we live, work, and find our identities – are the starting point for so much else that we need to feel that belonging, and to thrive. With the right people, and chances to be human together, we can feel safe, and we can feel we have a place in the world. And that, in turn, is the starting point for being able to take up the opportunities around us, to be part of a healthy society, and to have a sense of pride in who we are.
Wales is a nation where that thread of pride has stood out across our collective history. But against a backdrop of high poverty, and the ringing echoes of Thatcher-era policy, it hasn’t always been easy for community cohesion to take root. Now, with the links between our relationships, our opportunities, and our wellbeing recognised clearly in a Welsh Government mental health strategy, it’s perhaps easier to hold hope.
What does community mean to you, and what helps you connect with the people around you? We’d love to hear your thoughts – answer just one question at the link below, and help inform how Platfform understands community connection.
