What is the business?
NW Counselling Hub (NWCH) was founded on 1st April 2017 by Naomi Watkins and Alex Parkin. Naomi, a leading domestic abuse consultant, and Alex, who has a background working with children with special education needs, felt there wasn’t enough mental health support for local people in Lincolnshire. Two years later, NW Counselling Hub is working to fill those gaps, and supports children, young people, adults and families struggling with their mental wellbeing, along with offering training, support and networking events for counsellors.
History
After being awarded a Winston Churchill Memorial Grant, Naomi was able to conduct research into suicide prevention techniques targeted at young people. She spent four weeks in Australia and two weeks in New Zealand, collecting data from 19 different organisations.
She conducted interviews with frontline services and organisational bodies to uncover what puts young people at risk of suicide, including what suicide prevention techniques they believe are working and which are not.
How did LORIC help?
Naomi had heard about LORIC in the press and knew that their support could be invaluable to her project. Her data analyst Katya introduced her to various research techniques and showed her how to collate the data she collected. This included familiarising Naomi with useful software and demonstrating how to best structure her questions. Katya also sourced valuable open data for Naomi, which she could use to create the background for her report.
Plans for the future
Naomi hopes to use her research to support young people going through mental health difficulties in Lincolnshire, preventing them from ending their lives by suicide. She believes LORIC’s assistance with the project will help to advance NW Counselling as a mental health platform in the county, as well as heighten their reputation as a leader in suicide prevention.