Our Bath Mind Journey

Our longest serving member of staff, Fiona, has been with Bath Mind for an incredible 20 years while Paul has been with Bath Mind for 17 years! Both have made a huge contribution to mental health support in BaNES and below, they share some words about their time at Bath Mind.

Paul:

“I began working at Bath Mind in June 2006 as the Registered Manager of 82 Lower Oldfield Park and manager of our two supported houses. Fiona Stradling acted as my deputy and later became the Housing Manager in 2017.  In 2006 the registered home only accommodated 6 people needing 24 hour support, but after remodelling the home we comfortably accommodated 8 people to increase income, as it is today.

When I started, Bath Mind employed no more than 25 people in total and our main office was based in the Abbey Churchyard in central Bath. Our services consisted of Housing, Befriending and Advocacy and a single Wellbeing meeting group. Our central office staff consisted of a CEO, Secretary and a Finance Officer only. Computers were only introduced to the organisation in late 2006 and I remember having to fight for this with our then CEO. We were a small charity; effective but not really taking advantage of wider opportunities or pushing ourselves to achieve more.

Over time many faces came and went but we held on to our core range of services and started to build relationships with BaNES commissioners and local partners. In 2009 we lost our bid with BaNES to continue our Advocacy services and our CEO of seven years left to retire, for Kate Morton to take over. We began to expand our services and increase our central office infrastructure and in 2017 I relocated to the central office to work as Director of Operations, alongside Kate.

Our mission has largely not changed since 2009, where we aim to deliver quality services to our community. Since 2006 I have seen Bath Mind grow to reach new communities and support more people within BaNES. We have forged new, positive relationships across BaNES, Swindon and Wiltshire to great effect! We currently employ 154 amazing people with a large cohort of fantastic volunteers. We are a relevant third sector force in BaNES and BSW and this is something for us all to be proud of.”

Fiona:

“I started working for Bath Mind in 2003 as a volunteer advocate and befriender. I really enjoyed this role and it quickly gave me an insight into mental health and its impact on individuals. It was a bit of a life changer for me and I have spent every year since then working for Bath Mind and watching the amazing work that has been done over the years. Bath Mind has continued to work with people in the community to enhance wellbeing, support inclusive community and raise awareness of mental health issues and how to challenge discrimination.”