Paul tells us about his experience visiting Safe Spaces; a service that offers same-day support for people who need urgent help with their emotional and mental wellbeing.

I didn’t actually seek out Safe Spaces as such. I found it via Bradford District and Craven Mind. Because, I’ve been coming here for quite a quite a few years, on and off.

And, I think, you know, in that time I’ve gone through some various ups and downs, but there were times when particular things would be happening. My main issue is isolation.

There were particular times when that would, you know, it was like kicking really, really hard and I just needed someone to talk to and also to maybe discuss the underlying reasons for why I was feeling as I was.

And it’s always reassuring to know there’s somewhere you can go. What would happen if there wasn’t anywhere to go? What would what would you do then, you know. But somebody who’s out there going through a crisis, they might have had an eviction notice.

They might, you know, have bereavement or something like that. And they don’t have anyone they can go to on that particular night, for example, but they can phone up and come in here and sit down and talk to someone for an hour or so, have a cup of tea, friendly, warm, everything that the outside isn’t, and it stops you from going from anxiety to very dark thoughts and and on, so on and so on.

And at that point where I called in, I just didn’t know what to do. I was able to sit down with someone who would just listen. And it’s difficult to describe how reassuring it feels to be able to know that you can go somewhere. It’s so important.