On Thursday 13th November, the Devon Mental Health Alliance banded together with the Plymouth Mental Health Collective to host the first Community Mental Health & Wellbeing Open Day in Plymouth. Set up in the Plymouth Methodist Central Hall in the city centre, the event invited local mental health organisations to open the doors to the public, bringing services and support closer to the community.

With 40 stalls on display, the Open Day offered an array of options for attendees to explore including stalls from Andy’s Man Club, Citizen’s Advice, First Light, Plymouth Community Builders, Hamoaze House, Plymouth Soup Run and many more. Both community members and stallholders expressed how important it was for them to connect with the support available in Plymouth, all in one room. The idea was inspired by a Community Appointment Day held by a physio therapy team in Surrey.

The day was made possible by the support of organisations such as Improving Lives Plymouth, Livewell Southwest and Devon Mind. Most importantly, the event was co-created with the Devon Mental Health Alliance’s Plymouth Co-production Group, ‘Step Together’. The Step Together group is made up of Experts by Experience, to ensure those with lived experience are at the centre of planning and delivery. Many of the Experts by Experience volunteered to co-design, co-produce and host the Open Day. Speaking with Cindy Dale, the DMHA’s Co-Production Lead, Cindy described the journey the group have taken to create such a successful event. “Over the course of eight months, during monthly co-production meetings, the group dedicated their time, energy, and creativity to shaping the event. Their focus was not only on logistics but on building something welcoming, accessible, and rooted in compassion.”

The Step Together group not only co-produced the event but had an active role in engaging the public by volunteering to distribute flyers across Plymouth and being welcoming, friendly faces on the day to greet and guide people. One of the experts who is particularly interested in art and design created a hand drawn poster to advertise the event which was highly regarded in attendee feedback, with many saying that the hand-drawn poster was the one that enticed them to come along on the day.

You can see the Experts by Experience’s poster below:

“The personal hand drawn posters were a really nice touch!”

- Attendee feedback

Larissa Milden, DMHA’s Community Development Lead for Plymouth and West Devon, also congratulated the Step Together group, she said “What made the day truly special for me was that it was fully co-produced with people with lived experience through the ‘Step Together’ group. Our EbE volunteers were absolutely incredible — from shaping the day, designing flyers, and promoting it across the community, to distributing flyers, setting up the venue, welcoming attendees, manning stalls, and collecting feedback. So many people came along throughout the day, and all their energy and dedication really paid off! I also loved how it was such a cross-organisation effort. True community in action!”

“True community in action!”

- Larissa Milden, Improving Lives Plymouth & DMHA

Overall, the day was very busy with people constantly arriving and staying as long as they needed to really take in all of the stalls that were on offer. One stallholder fed back to our organisers how the day was a “great success"!” and that they “don’t get the chance to connect with so many people and organisations like this”. Another attendee expressed how “rich in resources” the event proved Plymouth to be.

As the first event of its kind, community feedback was vitally important. On the way out visitors and stallholders were invited to answer 3 questions: “what was helpful?”, “what could be better?”, and “would you come again?”. At the end of the day, resounding feedback from organisations and attendees were that the event was beneficial for both communities and professionals to better connect and “join-the-dots” of what is available in Plymouth.

Many attendees noted the warm, welcoming atmosphere and how connected everyone felt. Dr Cheryl Bullion, Clinical Psychologist for the Devon Mental Health Alliance, expressed the important of connection the event provided, saying “It was such an inspirational day, while walking around I heard a lot of meaningful conversations taking place”.

The majority of attendees asked for more events like this, held regularly and hosted in bigger venues to encompass the “rich resources” in Plymouth. Providing stallholders with the opportunity to network themselves was a key finding with multiple professionals expressing the need for more time to explore the space and star5t conversations with other professionals. A positive constructive feedback, showing Plymouth’s hunger for more partnership working and collaboration.

Without the amazing breadth of stallholders who signed up to be a part of the day and the collaborative energy of the Step Together Co-production Group, this event would not have been such a success. The Devon Mental Health Alliance and Plymouth Mental Health Collective would like to thank everyone who took part in the Wellbeing Open Day. Including the organisations who could not hold a stall but still came along and networked on the day.

Couldn’t make it on the day? See a full list of stallholders below:

Thank you to our stallholders: