The Voices Unlocked Project

The Voices Unlocked project was founded and established by Mind in Camden in 2010 to partner with the justice system to set up peer-to-peer support group networks in prisons, secure units, Youth Offending Institutions and Immigration Removal Centres.

The original concept behind Voices Unlocked began with the Hearing Voices Movement and Congress established in the 1980's that has spread globally, and in the London Hearing Voices Network of the 2000's, to encourage the growth of peer support networks for individuals who hear voices across London and the UK.

Voices Unlocked established the first female peer support group of its kind in HMP Holloway in 2011, followed by the first male group in HMP Wandsworth, and in over a decade has worked to establish peer support networks, develop and deliver specialist training, facilitate focus groups, and create and distribute coping kits, for detainees and staff in fifty institutions across the UK.

Voices Unlocked and its partner organisation Voice Collective, which works with young people between the ages of 11 - 25, remains focused on a person-centred approach that seeks to raise awareness, offer an alternative to medical models, and reduce stigma around the issues faced by voice hearers in the UK