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The Lucy Rayner Foundation
The Lucy Rayner Foundation is a registered charity with the aim of promoting and raising awareness of the physical and mental health of persons suffering from depression, in particular but not exclusively, young adults, through campaigning and education. The objective of the Lucy Rayner Foundation is to build emotional resilience and stamina in young adults to enable them to thrive in society through group and one to one support. The Lucy Rayner Foundation strives to change the way mental health is perceived by society, and to break down the stigma.
How does your organisation contribute to preventing suicide and supporting those affected by it?
The Lucy Rayner Foundation helps suicide prevention through campaigning and education, raising awareness of the signs and symptoms of depression in young adults. Through workshops and talks in schools, colleges, universities and in the workplace, the Lucy Rayner Foundation are able to reach young people and offer support via group and one to one counselling, which is free for the young person once they have been referred. There is currently no waiting list.
For people that have been affected by suicide of a loved one, the Lucy Rayner Foundation provides a bereavement service – Surrey Suicide Bereavement Service. This service covers the whole of Surrey and provides practical and emotional support during this difficult time.
In the short term, the service will help the family deal with the immediate situation following the death of their loved one. We will review the welfare of the family and provide support and advocacy as needed.
In the medium term, the service will support the family as they begin to grieve. If one to one counselling, or family therapy is needed, we will support the family to access this.
In the long term, we hope to ensure that the family have all the resources they need to help them in the years to come.
What are your current priorities?
Current priorities is making sure that we deliver these services with compassion and care to the best of our abilities.
To be have facilities and resources that enable us to expand and grow, to be able to implement new ideas and services through the charity.
What challenges are you currently facing?
As with most non for profit charities funding is always a challenge, that is why it is important to find new avenues and opportunities to fundraise and partner with other foundations, trusts and companies to help us achieve our goals for the charity.