Self Management in the Community 2025 finalist – Talking is Mental CIC

“We could not do the work we do without the support of other organisations across Glasgow.”

Talking is Mental CIC (TIM) is a voluntary run Glasgow based organisation combating social isolation and loneliness by delivering a variety of free or very low cost activity groups across the city, including theatre, writing, art, walking and football groups. These groups are open to anyone experiencing social isolation and loneliness and aim to encourage dialogue around the impact of these issues on physical and mental health.

As a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic, the founders of Talking is Mental experienced social isolation and loneliness and found it difficult to access spaces to connect with others in non-clinical settings. This was later compounded by the cost of living crisis, with local and public community settings having to close due to budget cuts. The more they noticed it in themselves, they started seeing it happening to family and friends. The lack of opportunities for people to find friends and build communities was particularly apparent for those who were facing barriers such as low income, poverty and mental health issues, as well as individuals who are neurodivergent.

Since launching as a community group in November 2024, Talking is Mental have welcomed nearly 200 people to their groups and have provided a prevention and early intervention service for many of them. Ultimately the most important part of the work they do is the involvement of the people they work with. Everything they do is shaped by the needs and aims of the participants. Each group is built around the participants’ goals – they are equal leaders of the organisation and will shape Talking is Mental’s future.

They believe that working collaboratively with other organisations is also key to their success and have learned that the more they work together, the more impact they can have on the people they work with. “We could not do the work we do without the support of other organisations across Glasgow.” For example; Wheatley Homes provides the community space free of charge where they deliver their theatre, writing and art groups; Walking Scotland allowed them to be a member of the Scottish Health Walk Network, providing Health Walk Leader training to the team; they use the pitches at Powerleague Glasgow for their Football group and they have referral and signposting relationships with Scottish Association for Mental Health (SAMH), Nemo Arts, Community Links Workers, Simon Community Scotland, Age Scotland and Enable. 

They acknowledge, however, that the current funding challenges, “can cause barriers to connecting with other organisations, who, due to the pressures of the landscape, are often pushed to compete rather than collaborate. By funding landscape, we mean the amount of funding available, short term funding rather than multi year funding and the bureaucratic and inaccessible nature of funding applications. This causes barriers to delivering our groups, the resources we can allocate to them and how quickly we are able to grow.”

The lessons they would share with other organisations hoping to work in a similar, community focused way, are “to have a good team of kind, passionate and creative people, to connect and learn from as many people and organisations as your possibly can and to ensure that the people accessing the services you are providing are at the heart of everything you do.”

For the future of Talking is Mental, they hope to be able to support even more people across Scotland who are experiencing social isolation and loneliness and empower them to connect with others and build their own communities. They want to inform and promote awareness around social isolation and loneliness, and train others on these topics and how to combat them. And they aim to expand what they already offer, and more, across other areas of Glasgow and eventually wider Scotland. “We want our participants to become leaders of Talking is Mental, and co-produce the future of the organisation.”

You can read all Connected Communities case studies here: https://www.alliance-scotland.org.uk/blog/case_studies/?projects=connected-communities