Help Meet the team
MindMate Leeds is a collaboration between young people and professionals in the city, commissioned by Leeds Health and Care Partnership, on behalf of NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (Leeds office) and Future in Mind, Leeds.
Mysha, MindMate Ambassador
I am a Computer Science with AI student passionate about mental health awareness and breaking the stigma around seeking help. Through my own experiences, I hope to offer understanding and support to those who may feel lost. Outside of academics, I enjoy reading fiction that explores social issues, watching films, and volunteering at film festivals to engage with diverse storytelling.
Emmanuel, MindMate Ambassdor
I’m a college student passionate about youth politics and mental health awareness. I aim to challenge the misconceptions ethnic minority parents have about mental health, treating it as a taboo or myth. I enjoy socializing with friends and family, always sparking engaging debates.
Kaiden, MindMate Ambassador
I have lived experience in mental health and I would like to use my experience to show and help young people that it’s okay to feel how you feel how they feel because it’s okay not to be okay
Hope, MindMate Ambassador
I love being creative – making clothes, expressing my emotions through drawing or sculpting with clay. I love listening to music and also being outdoors. I find so much joy and peace in nature, especially if I’m by the ocean! I want to use my lived experience with mental health difficulties in a positive way to help break the stigma and show people that there is a light at the end of the tunnel!
Morven, MindMate Ambassador
I’m a BSc Geography student with a passion for Mental Health and SEND support! I want to give back to the systems that helped me by using my lived experience to ensure other young people are able to access the support they need!
Emily, MindMate Ambassador
I’m an undergraduate student and I am passionate about spreading awareness of mental health through my lived experiences and showing people that the future is definitely bright!! I love a positive quote as well as reducing the stigma around neurodiversity. I love making people smile – it gives me so much joy seeing other people happy.
Feli, MindMate Ambassador
I’m an undergraduate student at University and interested in all things art! I write poetry, paint and love to crochet. I have experienced mental health issues in the past and want to help reduce the stigma around support-through Mindmate I’d love to cultivate the awareness and education surrounding mental health.
Liz, Common Room
I help children, young people and families in Leeds work alongside MindMate and the Future in Mind Programme Board, enabling them to have a say about plans in the city, and about the support and information available. I manage the MindMate Ambassador team and also facilitate the MindMate Professional Approval panel to ensure information on this site is clinically safe and evidence based.
Saira, Early Help, Children and Families, LCC
My role as the lead for Health & Wellbeing Services is to manage the services which support the schools/settings. This involves training, advising, supporting and assessing the whole school approach to practice, provision, policies, curriculum, and teaching in schools. We have a number of frameworks, programmes and resources to help schools – find out more here
Alex, ICB in Leeds
My role as a GP and Clinical Lead is to bring independent clinical knowledge, experience and insight to help children, young people and families get the right support, at the right time and in the right place for their mental health needs. This involves working with different people and organisations to understand what works well and what needs to improve, so that people can experience better care and help improve the health of those who need it most.
Steph, ICB in Leeds
My role is to provide communications support to MindMate. This includes supporting with social media and planning campaigns, and helping to raise awareness of MindMate among professionals and the public.
About the MindMate Ambassador team
We are a small team of part-time MindMate employees between 17 and 23 years here to represent young people and their views and help make MindMate relevant to young people. We all have lived experience or know people who are closely affected by mental health issues and the support systems in Leeds.
What we do
We have one main goal which is to reduce stigma around mental health and create a more open conversation about how young people are actually feeling. We do all sorts of work in the city to help promote MindMate. We visit schools and colleges to talk to students about mental health and make sure they know about MindMate and all the information and services which are available to them to support their mental health. We take part in conferences, board meetings, commissioning panels and other meetings about plans for the city. We’ve also written blogs, recorded podcasts and helped design and write parts of the website. Check out the MindMate YouTube Channel to see some of our work and hear from other young people in Leeds
