Annual Report: 1[st] January 2024 – 31[st] December 2024.
I am happy to report on an excellent year, for the Wokingham and West Berkshire Mental Health Association.
Drop-In Centre.
The Drop-In Centre was very well used throughout the year – with attendance numbers, and those supported, reaching a total of one thousand, eight hundred, and one. In the latter part of the year, we have provided ‘warm places’ for service users who, due to limited income, cannot afford high heating bills. Our beautiful, warm rooms, have proved ideal for this purpose.
Crisis Intervention, Information, and Advocacy.
This service continued successfully, throughout the year. A lot of our work involves filling in forms for service users – to ensure that they continue to receive disability benefits. Frequently, people are unaware of their entitlements, so we are able to provide them with the necessary information and advocacy. We are very conscious of the fact that filling in pages and pages of forms, can be very daunting, for a mentally ill person – striving to cope with it all, alone, so we are very happy to provide this service for them.
Befriending.
This service also continued, successfully, throughout the year, and we have also been successful in expanding this service.
Station House.
Throughout 2024, we have carried out a large number of repairs and improvements to Station House. Due to the generosity of one of our long-term volunteers, we were able to pay for repairs to a collapsed ceiling, and thus, necessary, redecoration, of our Counselling Room. This was a donation of £1,700.00. We also received a generous donation of £1000.00 from The Berkshire Masons Charitable fund – to pay for essential repairs to a roof and wall, and to complete damp-proofing. Built in 1849, Station House is so old, that its upkeep and repairs have to go on all the time – not that we are complaining. Old and decrepit, to outsiders, it is the perfect retro sanctuary for Wokingham’s mentally ill people – and also occupies the perfect location for a mental health Centre – within minutes of all public transport – right in the middle of everything, and yet nowhere near anybody. Just what the doctor ordered!
Finances.
We have done well, with very generous donations, throughout the year. In addition to those already mentioned, we have received two donations of £2,500.00 each, from the Berkshire Community Foundation. Unlike many Funding Bodies, the Foundation will help fund daily running costs – such as electricity, Business Rates, and Public Liability Insurance bills. These are crippling, but we still have to find the money to keep our services going, so we are most grateful to Funders who will support general costs. We are equally grateful to Wokingham Town Council, who, in 2024, made us a most generous donation of £4,000.00. During the year, we have also received a generous donation of £117.50 from the Wokingham Society of Friends, the Quakers. We are equally grateful for a number of other, small, but nevertheless, very useful donations – both in money, and in kind. These have included individual donations of £180.00, £134.24, and £50.00. Very valuable to us, because they ensure predictable income, are the regular donations which members place, monthly, into our Bank Account. Throughout 2024, these reached a total of £1,122.00. Not to be forgotten, are gifts in kind – such as coffee, tea, and biscuits, and also the generous amounts of money that service users put into the Centre’s Collection Box. In December 2024, we also received a full box of money collected by the mother of one of our volunteers – by placing it in her Business Premises.
Supporting Individuals.
Good finances enable us to support individuals in private treatment and psychoanalysis – where we think that this can benefit them. We have agreed to pay for this for one of our members who is suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of her son’s recent suicide. She commences the treatment in January 2025. We also support individuals in a practical way. As well as continuing to pay, for part of the year, for one of our disabled service users to get to us by taxi, we are now paying for him to have, regular podiatry, at home. His walking has improved greatly as a result of the regular treatment and care.
Obituaries.
It is sad to record that in 2024, Philip Grimsdell died, in tragic circumstances. We have been supporting his longterm befriender, Johnnie Hoggett. His funeral is to be held at the Caversham Crematorium, on 20[th] January 2025, and supporting Johnnie, and representing our Association, will be our befriender, Paul Little.
Publication of Book.
I have decided to entitle my latest book – ‘The Diamond in the Coal Bucket’ – ‘The Forty Year History of The Wokingham Crisis House.’ Long may we continue to sparkle! By 7[th] March 2027, we will have been running services at Station House for exactly forty years – Deo Volente! On 7[th] March 1987, I started the Mental Health Association in Wokingham, and our first meeting, on that day, was in Station House, so, strictly speaking, the history of the Crisis House started then – even though we didn’t take the building over until March 1991.
Christmas.
Our 2024 Christmas Party was a great success. It is quite true that, at Christmas, we still receive grateful cards, from people who used our services more than twenty years ago, and, as a result of our support, turned their lives around, and are flourishing to this day! For instance, we always receive a Christmas card from a former heroin addict who stayed in the crisis house from February 2004 to January 2006. Our service enabled her to come off drugs and to reestablish her life – so decades later, she remains grateful.
Vote of Thanks.
I wish to record thanks to all those who have supported us – either, financially, or as volunteers, in carrying out our invaluable work for mental health, throughout Wokingham and West Berkshire – during the year 2024.
Pam Jenkinson, Association President. 31[st] December 2024.
Wokingham & West Berkshire Mental Health Association
Income and Expenditure Account
for the period 1st April 2023 to 31 March 2024
Income
Brought Forward Donations Loan
Total Income
Expenditure
Professional Cleaning Daily & Household Expenses Public Liability Insurance Television Electricity Fire Safety Telephone/Internet Water Rates Business Rates & Rent Repairs Psychotherapy Welfare
Total Expenditure
Income over expenditure
Bank Accounts as at 31st March 2024
£28,331.56 £10,339.48 £6,750.00 £45,421.04
£1,296.00 £6,781.61 £2,217.90 £158.22 £1,616.73 £720.38 £564.99 £270.42 £1,799.09 £7,270.50 £1,525.00 £1,438.00 £25,658.84
£19,762.20
£19,762.20
1, Arlington Close, Bracknell, Berks. RG42 1YF 1 June, 2024
To Whom It May Concern:
I have examined the Accounts of The Wokingham & West Berkshire Mental Health Association for the period 1[st] April, 2023 to 31[st] March, 2024.
I confirm that this is an accurate statement of the Association’s income and expenditure for this period.
Dennis M. Jenkinson