NCP Partners with Chasing the Stigma to Support Colleagues

NCP has partnered with national mental health charity, Chasing the Stigma to help raise awareness of the importance of mental health with its workforce and also the 28 million customers who use the car parks across the UK each year.

During lockdown, NCP engaged with its employees to understand the mood and wellbeing of its workforce, both those who were furloughed and those working remotely. From the feedback it was clear that mental health was a priority for colleagues and the organisation made supporting staff a priority by running a variety of holistic mental health and wellbeing programmes to help everyone recognise, understand and look after their own mental health, and that of their teams, as they would their physical health.

Given the demanding nature of the past 12 months, NCP decided to partner with Chasing the Stigma, which aims to normalise mental health and making accessing support easier for everyone, to help to get the great work the charity accomplishes recognised across a wider audience by utilising its nationwide car parks.

Ania Lesniak, CPO at NCP, commented: “After the year we have had, ensuring the wellbeing of our workforce has never been more important. Partnering with Chasing the Stigma was the next step for us as it aligned with our internal priorities, particularly as the charity has the Hub of Hope app which is free and would benefit anyone who needed mental health support.

“We also believe that by partnering with Chasing the Stigma we can provide a great deal of positive influence to all of our customers and signpost them to help if and when they need it. Just by displaying posters within all of our car parks and working with the charity will mean we hopefully reach as many people as possible during what continues to be a challenging time for many.

Chasing the Stigma was set up by Liverpool comedian, Jake Mills following his own suicide attempt in October 2013. Jake realised when talking through his own personal experience that many people didn’t know where to turn within their own mental health issues, so he and his team created the Hub of Hope – an app to bring together all of the mental health support available to someone in any given area.

Jake commented: “Right now it is vital for all of us to focus on mental health  and we are really pleased to be partnering with NCP to help us raise the profile of the Hub of Hope, our free app which makes finding local help easier, and also raise money so we can continue our essential work removing the stigma around mental health and making support more accessible.

“If everyone is aware of the app, downloads it and let friends, colleagues and family members know about it, we can show that there is always hope, particularly, as people can find help before crisis point and hopefully reduce the number of deaths by suicide across the UK.”

The Hub of Hope app is the only service of its kind that brings together NHS, Samaritans, Mind and 2,500+ registered national and local voluntary, grassroots, private and third sector mental health support groups and services, and this is growing on a daily basis. So no matter what support someone needs and regardless of  age, culture, sexuality or gender, there is help available.

The Hub of Hope has already directed more than 200,000 people to life-changing and even life-saving help. The site has proved particularly popular amongst men aged 25-54, who are often cited as being most likely to die by suicide.

The Hub of Hope can be accessed through the app, which can be downloaded from the App Store or Play Store (Android), via the Chasing the Stigma website or www.hubofhope.co.uk.  The Hub of Hope also has a ‘Need Help Now?’ button that connects users directly to Samaritans or Crisis Text Line’s messaging service.

The Hub of Hope is also used by emergency services and NHS Trusts across the UK and has been commended by the UK’s leading mental health charities including Mind, Samaritans and Anxiety UK.

As Chasing the Stigma is a charity, it relies heavily on donations from the public and all money goes towards expanding the charity to ensure everyone across the UK has access to mental health support not just at crisis point, but whenever they need it.

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