My name is Steve, I live on the Wirral and my life experience since 2010 has been like going to hell and back.

I had severe depression and anxiety from 2010 until 2014 and lost everything from my job, my marriage and I became homeless and ended up in a hostel with just my clothes as possessions.

I learnt so much through my recovery that I saw massive gaps in the current system, a lack of guiding young people and adults in the community or school with poor mental health through to a full and succesful recovery.

The importance of educating family & friends on how to act & react with a loved one with poor mental health is key (this area is one of the biggest influences on someones recovery or not).

Plus the social and economic impact on social housing, unemployment, benefits, days off work and NHS costs to name a few areas that make up the £100 Billion per year the UK Government currently spends on Mental Health.

My project has evolved as discussions have taken place and it is recognised that we should be focusing on a "Holistic view" of family mental health where every family that is experiencing mental health has someone actively involved (Community Mental Health Support Worker), taking on board everything the family is experiencing and then being able to pool whatever resource is required for that family from a multidude of organisations to ensure a unique and bespoke intervention package for the family (This is required as there is not one solution for all). I would love to be able to fund some initial Community Mental Health Support Workers to prove that this approach will work.

From this we can achieve earlier intervention for the whole family making sure the employed stay employed, those on benefits will recover sooner and find gainful employment, fewer families will split up lessening the impact on Social Housing, children are happier and finally earlier intervention will greatly reduce suicide attempts and future dual diagnosis for alcohol and drug dependency which will greatly assist NHS Acute services and costs.

Area's that need re-vamping;

- Back to basics Mental Health education given to the public instead of them having to go looking for it.

- Linking Healthy body, healthy mind.

- Definite links between healthier food and good mental health.

- Bodies immune system, brains immune system working together concept.

- Majority of people not recovering due to families not understanding how they can help, actually making the diagnosed worse. This is a real illness and not just a change in someone's behaviour.

- Majority of stigma and discrimination comes from family / friends and workplace.

- Between Mental Health diagnosis and suicide attempts there is currently very little intervention.

My motivation behind this is to stop other families going through what my then family went through and by donating to this project it will fund the much needed Community Mental Health Support Workers we desperately need.

Please donate what you can and I will try to innovate and influence the Government and NHS with my ideas to look at Mental Health in a new and modern way that with earlier intervention and reducing dual diagnosis with Alcohol / Drugs should significantly reduce the £100 billion currently being spent, which can be re directed into other vital area's of the NHS for example.

Also please share this link to all your social media contacts as at some point in all our families lives we will all be affected by Mental Health and when that happens you will want something like the above project in place.

Although I live on the Wirral I would like this to be a National project with teams around the country and I am prepared to travel around the country to set this up.

As well as setting up my project and as part of my giving back I re-trained and have worked in Childrens Services and Adult Services.

I am happy to meet with groups / organisations / media to discuss my experiences and my ideas (Would have to be in the school holidays as I work term time).

Thank you for showing an interest.

Steve