Supporting people with mental health challenges or learning disabilities to live well locally.
The Fircroft Trust is a local charity working in Kingston upon Thames, with adults living in the community with mental health challenges or learning disabilities.
We provide:
- Support for over 70 adults living with severe and enduring mental health
challenges, some of whom are resistant to medication. - A Residential Care centre for 8 adults with complex needs and Supported Living for
15 tenants in our state-of-the-art care facility. - Man Shed: Men are less likely to seek help if they are struggling with their mental health
and are more at risk of social isolation than women. The Fircroft Trust Man Shed provides
an environment where men will be at less risk of isolation, make friends, feel valued and
most importantly, talk.
Why the community needs us
The Fircroft Centre supports some of the most marginalised people - adults with mental health challenges. Post-covid, we were the only organisation in Kingston providing centre-based support for people with mental health challenges. This was very important for those beginning to recover from hospitalisation or severe crisis and also for those on day support from hospital. A national research has shown that 18% of all mental health suicides occurred within the first two weeks of discharge from hospital.
Our impact on the community
The global impact of the COVID pandemic has been devastating. Many of our service users are lonely and anxious about what the future holds for them if they are unable access our services. We have daily contact with our most vulnerable service-users - either via telephone, outside group activities or ‘COVID-friendly’ garden work with our ‘man-shedders’ - the primary aim is to ensure all our services users are kept safe and feel connected.
Continued funds are needed to support all our vulnerable adults as we come out of lockdown and look to secure new premises to resume our face-to-face day centre services to connect with the people who need us most.
