Breathing Space’s unique contribution

Expertise and experience

Breathing Space has grown out of the work of the LBC – a long-standing, registered charity that is financially stable, has a good reputation and is embedded in the local community. We have a dedicated team – including trustees, staff and volunteers – led by Dr Paramabandhu Groves, an NHS consultant psychiatrist specialising in addiction. Most of our courses run during evenings and at weekends, when many other services are closed. We are situated in east London, an area of great need, among the most deprived in England. We currently manage two social service contracts in Tower Hamlets and are therefore well placed to secure further public sector contracts. MBCT calls on our core skills of mindfulness-based practice. We have clinical expertise and practical experience to deliver this work to a high standard and to train and supervise others.

The feedback from participants on our MBCT courses has been exceptionally good. 84% of those attending the last session of our first two courses rated the course as 7 out of 9 (i.e. very important) or greater. Common comments included finding the course practically very helpful:
• “I now have an invaluable set of tools to which I can always refer”
• “I feel I have been given … a new set of tools that I can reach for both in times of crises and in daily routine”

Meeting local need in East London

The LBC is based in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Given its name, it also attracts people from the neighbouring boroughs of Hackney and Newham and from all over London and the South East. All of the wards in Hackney and Newham and all but one of the wards in Tower Hamlets are among the most deprived in England. For example, some 59% of Tower Hamlets children live in poverty.

A higher-than-average number of residents in Hackney and Tower Hamlets feel that they are in poor health. And in Hackney the proportion of people registered with a GP for severe mental health problems is well above the national average. In Tower Hamlets, alcohol related hospital stays and numbers in drug misuse treatment are high; while an estimated 4,500 people are on Incapacity Benefits because of mental illness. A high proportion of these people are likely to suffer from depression, stress and anxiety disorders.