For Hope in Every Life is the first appeal ever to focus on people living with complex mental health needs, and those who are receiving psychiatric treatment in hospital.

1 in 4 of us experience mental health problems. Some of us will experience severe mental illness, with 1 in every 105 of us having a mental health diagnosis classified as severe. That's about half a million people in the UK - about the same number as live in Edinburgh!

For many people, there are other factors that can make living with a severe mental illness even more difficult - a mental health condition is considered complex when people are living with a severe mental illness alongside another condition or complicating factor. For example, someone may have a diagnosis of schizophrenia, and a learning difficulty, or they may have psychosis and also be homeless with a history of substance abuse.

We aim to help people with complex mental health recover and work towards a brighter future, so they can live a life full of hope.

Here is the difference that your support could make:

✅£10 could help purchase ingredients for one of our baking workshops

✅£25 could contribute towards materials for an art therapy session

✅£50 would support our group wellbeing activities

✅£100 could help fund a beginners' climbing course

Every donation funds activities, groundbreaking care, expands vital resources, and creates opportunities for recovery that once seemed out of reach. Because better care doesn’t just change outcomes - it changes futures.

How we rebuild lives

Meet Sedona. She is living proof that with the right support, people can work towards a full, active and meaningful life, whatever their struggles have been in the past.

Sedona was a patient at St Andrew’s Healthcare for over two years. Before her admission she had been in multiple different hospitals. She has struggled with her mental health since the age of 15, and been diagnosed with anorexia nervosa and borderline personality disorder.

Sedona's risk level was very high, with incidents of self-harm and attempts of suicide. It was not until she was admitted to a personality disorder specific ward at St Andrew’s in 2021 that she felt that her mental health started to improve. She said:

During her inpatient stay Sedona accessed music lessons, where she learnt to play the cello. She also was able to focus on her education, taking her A Levels and even a lifeguard qualification.

She said that having staff believe in her “finally felt that someone was giving me a way out as long as I committed to my recovery”.

Sedona was discharged from St Andrew’s in 2023, and was moved into a supported accommodation. There she managed to stay well and has now started studying bio-medicine at Bath University.

Your donation today – whether it’s £10, £100, £1,000 or more – will make a real difference to someone like Sedona who is living with complex mental health.

About our work

We're proud to be leading the first ever charity appeal that supports people with complex mental health - but we won't rest until people with complex mental health are given the opportunity to excel in a society where otherwise they could be left behind.

What truly sets us apart is how we support the most vulnerable and poorly people in the mental healthcare system. We help them feel supported, seen and secure. We transform lives and ensure people live a life worth living.

Your donation will ensure we can continue empowering people to live full and active lives, whatever their diagnosis.

Thank you for supporting Hope in Every Life.