About Suffolk User Forum

Suffolk User Forum (SUF) is an independent mental health user-led involvement, peer support and advocacy organisation.

Our Mission:

To be an inclusive and trusted mental health user-led network that values, promotes, and strengthens the user voice for positive change, independence, human rights, choice, and control.

Our Vision: 

To be the leading organisation in East and West Suffolk, championing equal and valued partnerships between mental health service users, commissioners, and providers; combining mutual strengths and experience to improve services, achieving positive emotional and mental health for all.

We provide:

Advocacy Together – helping people at a time of mental health crisis to have their voice heard through inpatient mental health, non-statutory, peer-led advocacy, and support for self-advocacy.

Healthy Together peer support – helping people living with severe mental illness (SMI) through peer support to achieve personally identified healthcare goals following annual SMI health checks.

Peer telephone support – providing support to increase people’s mental health and wellbeing, building self-confidence and resilience, promoting connection, communities, and reducing isolation.

Making our Voice Count – gathering people’s feedback and enabling an active user voice in the commissioning and delivery of mental health services, facilitating coproduction, and influencing decision-making, valuing lived experience as an essential resource for service improvement.

This is achieved through our engagement and advocacy work, which alongside supporting people, prioritises the gathering and recording of people’s experiences of services. By connecting areas of individual feedback together, we draw together key themes and emerging trends in mental health experience. These are reported regularly in the SUF publication titled ‘Making our Voice Count’ which is presented to providers, commissioners, and to strategic partners, to influence decision-making and to promote coproduction, so that providers and commissioners can understand and actively respond to the current lived experience of people with mental health and emotional wellbeing needs.

Coproduction for suicide prevention – enabling the lived experience of suicidal feelings and bereavement by suicide to influence strategic plans and practice for suicide prevention and support. By promoting the coproduced crisis care model LISTEN and #kindesscounts promotional campaign, we are changing the language for suicide prevention, building partnerships and support networks.

Signposting for support – providing information to navigate and access mental health and community support networks, helping people get the support they need, when they need it.

Five Ways to Wellbeing – building emotional resilience and wellbeing for improved connection with self, others, and people’s communities, reducing social isolation.

Workshops exploring recovery and living well.

Opportunities 

To find out about our latest opportunities visit our vacancies page.