EPiC HOPE is a community interest charity based in Wigan and Leigh, dedicated to suicide prevention and mental health crisis support. They provide safe spaces for people in distress, giving support, understanding, education and connection to MH services as required. They do this in all manner of settings, but the common themes are community, accessibility, and informality. Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust deliver Community based Mental Health Crisis Spaces across the region and looked to deliver a crisis café on the center high street in Wigan to facilitate the charity. They also co-located their Community Crisis Team on the first floor to provide an integrated and joined-up service. A such the Crompton Steet Crisis café project was born.
The Project involved the refurbishment of vacant town centre shop unit to establish a Mental Health crisis café and community support hub. The space was to provide a safe and welcoming environment for individuals in mental health distress, offering immediate crisis support alongside access to wider wellbeing activities, peer support, and local services. This space included an open plan kitchen servery, informal seating designed to promote/facilitate 1 to 1 conversations with degrees of privacy delivered including booths. Private interview rooms and a changing places facility. On the first floor there is an open plan Community Crisis team office, meeting space and staff welfare area. The budget was £300K and the existing building needed extensive renovation to improve the current envelope, access, security, IT infrastructure, drainage and ventilation.
The café’s aim was to reduce pressure on emergency services, improve accessibility to early intervention and strengthen community resilience through a central, visible and inclusive support facility.
Co-production involved meaningful engagement with the Service users, expert reference groups, stakeholders, the charity, GP’s, local A+E reps, and social services with the outcomes focusing design on welcoming space that actively support positive mental health and avoids a clinical feel. Feedback highlighted the importance of the connection to nature, informality and a sense of belonging within the local community.
The design avoids making the space institutional and so is not fully anti-ligature/overtly NHS. Instead, the focus was on visibility, supportive layout and staff presence to ensure safety, while still allowing the space to feel open and comfortable.
One of the most meaningful parts of the project was the addition of the community artwork wall, created by local illustrator Dave Draws through dialogue with service users and staff. The artwork serves more than an aesthetic purpose although that helps, it reinforces the sense of belonging and community connection for supporting mental health; by surrounding visitors with familiar images of their local area.
The impact of the crisis café on the local high street has been immense and provided an accessible and welcoming point of community MH support to a town with the highest suicide rate in the Country. The design/model is set to become a blueprint for Crisis cafes across Greater Manchester with GMMH planning further schemes in the next 2 years.
