Two years of Access Wellbeing Weymouth & Portland!

The team at Access Wellbeing Weymouth & Portland are celebrating a milestone this week – the two-year anniversary of the Weymouth & Portland Hub at Hope House. 

Access Wellbeing offers free mental health and wellbeing support to anyone aged 18 and over. Staffed by friendly wellbeing coordinators, the spaces provide a welcoming environment where people can talk openly – whatever is on their mind.  

 Teams have the time to listen, and can offer practical and emotional support, as well as connecting people to specialist services when needed. 

 The Weymouth hub is part of a wider network of over 30 Access Wellbeing services now open across Dorset, delivered through an innovative partnership between the voluntary sector and the NHS. 

 A client who has been supported by a Wellbeing Coordinator from the Weymouth and Portland team: “Working with my wellbeing coordinator has given me exactly what I need – a safe place in which to discuss and explore the trauma I endured last year, which I still need to process, come to terms with and ultimately accept. To be doing this with someone who listens intently and understands, believes me (this is very important), is encouraging, is non-judgemental and brings wisdom to our meetings, is more than I could ever have hoped for.” 

 Since opening in February 2024, the Weymouth team has offered support from Hope House and various community drop-in spaces throughout South West Dorset. Between February 2024 and January 2026, the team have completed 3453 appointments and 1037 people have dropped into the service for support. 

 The Lantern Trust also run groups at the Weymouth hub, including: an art group, older person’s chair yoga, yoga, a women’s group, men’s art group and creative writing. 

With a total of 3622 people accessing these groups since February 2024!
Access Wellbeing staff signpost clients to these groups and vice versa, strengthening community engagement in Weymouth. 

One client from Southwest Dorset, described the service as “the light at the end of the tunnel.” Another stated that “Access Wellbeing has given me confidence to do things on my own, I now have a toolkit that I can access when I need it.” While another client said that after accessing support with Access Wellbeing: “I feel like I can breathe again.”

The Lantern Trust marked the occasion with a networking event in Dorchester, where colleagues from across the local support community gathered to share learning and look ahead to the future. 

 The team have been described by a client as: “supportive and friendly”, they were appreciative that the team “gave me the time to talk.” Another client stated: “Finally, someone who will listen and not judge me, an outlet for my thoughts and emotions.” and one client described themselves as “always leaving the drop-in feeling better than when I went in.”

Katie Turner, Service Development Lead for Access Wellbeing, South West Dorset, reflected on the last 2 years.  

She praised her “amazing staff team, who are the people doing the hard work. Part of a Wellbeing Coordinators role is to break down barriers and empower our clients so that they can carry on their journey’s themselves, partnerships and connections are key to helping our wider communities.”  

  “There’s a rich community in Weymouth, Portland and Dorchester as well as in the wider Dorset area, we are lucky within our team that we are employed by the Lantern Trust and so have direct links into all of the Lantern Trust services, such as, the housing and benefits team, drug and alcohol recovery worker, Supported accommodation officers, all of whom can support our clients with their journeys, in a person-centred way”. 

 To find out more about Access Wellbeing hubs and drop-in spaces, across the whole of Dorset visit:  www.dorsetaccesswellbeing.co.uk.