Isle Listen Seeing More Open Discussions Around Mental Health

Walking into the Isle Listen building is like walking into a big green hug. Nestled cosily near Castletown Harbour, it’s got gorgeous high ceilings, colourful artwork on the walls, and chairs that are as comfortable as they are cool everywhere. I made a mental note to try and smuggle one out under my top when I left. The signature green of Isle Listen, which has become instantly recognisable around the Island to the point where it could be a B&Q paint colour, was dotted around the place in a way that highlighted where you were without it being overwhelming. Everything had a comforting vibe.

My meeting was with Chief Executive of Isle Listen Andrea Chambers, and two members of the Wellbeing Solutions Team Gareth Nicholson, and Rebecca Macnair. Each exuberated an air of relaxed kindness, perfect for their line of work.

Isle Listen is a relatively new organisation, but its green roots run deep in the local community. It’s origin story dates back 40 years. *Cue harp music to indicate a long time ago* It all started with the Manx Cancer Help Psychological Services – a small team of people who supported the mental health of those affected by cancer – which later became Minds Matter. However, with the development of Hospice IOM came the implementation of Hospice’s own psychological support team. Acknowledging they were duplicating work, those behind Minds Matter realised there was a big gap in the market in supporting the wellbeing of young people. They saw the under-resourced CAMHS service, struggling under a 700-strong waiting list and decided to take the brave step to put themselves into that arena.

After receiving funding from the Scheinberg family – that generous lot – the team set up a year’s pilot of their new service into two of the Island’s secondary schools and that was how the Isle Listen model was built. The Z Zurich Foundation pitched in soon after with more funding, allowing for a fully fledged service to develop along with the name ‘Isle Listen.’ When I asked if there were any surprises in the early days of setting up the charity, Andrea, Gareth, and Rebecca all agreed the level of need by young people on the Island was unexpected. And since Covid, that need has spiked.

Isle Listen is designed to be an early intervention service in the hope it can reduce the number of young people being added to the CAMHS waiting list. It’s lead to the development of a team of qualified Isle Listen therapists who bridge the gap of seeing young people who need more than early intervention but aren’t poorly enough to need to be seen by CAMHS immediately. The two organisations, along with the Education Department, now collaborate frequently.

Though it might seem like the organisation is flourishing because of its positive place in our community, the charity relies solely on funding and is in urgent need of it. Isle Listen’s costs to function have soared from around £300,000 to £1.9million per year. Due to the nature of the work, the organisation can’t rely on volunteers, so all the money goes towards backing a fully qualified team of clinical psychologists and trained therapists who provide free services to kids and young people in school and out.

‘It’s about making sure young people have a safety net but helping them build up enough resilience, so they don’t solely rely on that net’ says Gareth. Speaking also as a dad of a 13-year-old who speaks opening about mental health, he said ‘the main aims of Isle Listen was to stop the stigma of mental health and we’re starting to see discussions around it normalising not just in children but in adults in the workplace too.’

When asked about aspirations for the future of Isle Listen, all members of the team hoped to see mental health and wellbeing being included in the curriculum in all schools from an early age. Andrea finished by saying they’d ‘love to say the service is still available in five years’ time, while also having less people in need of it because of early intervention work.’

After such a lovely interview, I didn’t have the heart to try and nick one of their funky chairs.. I tried to fit one up my jumper but they caught me and threatened legal action so I put it back.

If you’d like to find out more about Isle Listen you do so by visiting islelisten.im.