Harehills ❤️ Love

Welcome to Day 11 of the 2025 Harehills Good News Advent Calendar!

Today, we are talking about a mental health revolution that isn’t happening in a distant Harley Street clinic, but right here in the GP surgeries and community centres of Harehills.

We often hear about the crisis in mental health care, but the HEROES programme (Healing, Education, and Recovery of Emotional Strength), run within the Burmantofts, Harehills and Richmond Hill (BHR) Primary Care Network, is proving that recovery is possible.

Led by people with “lived experience”—facilitators who have been through their own struggles and come out the other side—HEROES takes a different approach. Instead of asking “what is wrong with you?”, they ask “what happened to you?”.

The Evidence This isn’t just warm words; it is backed by hard data. In their 2025 impact reports, the programme revealed a stunning statistic: 100% of participants recorded a reduced depression score by the midway point of the course.

This was measured using the PHQ-9 (the NHS standard Patient Health Questionnaire), with 95% of those people seeing their scores drop even further by the end of the eight weeks. In a sector where “success” is hard to quantify, these results are exceptional. (Source: MindWell Leeds / BHR PCN Impact Data).

A Year of Awards 2025 has been a year of huge recognition for the team:

• West Yorkshire Big Ideas Challenge: The programme was named a finalist in this prestigious innovation competition, securing £20,000 to help digitise the course and reach even more people.
• Pride in Diversity Awards 2025: Founder Miranda Arieh was crowned the “Pride Champion,” recognising the safe, inclusive culture the group creates.

Beyond the Therapy Room Perhaps the most “Harehills” part of this story is what happens next. The programme doesn’t just discharge people; it connects them. Thanks to a partnership with Trust Leeds, graduates are encouraged to form Self-Reliant Groups (SRGs). These groups continue to meet, save money together, and even start micro-businesses—turning patients into peers and strangers into a support network.

With facilitators like Sharon Ness and Kiran Bhath leading the charge, HEROES is proving that the cure for isolation is community.

Read the reports and verify the stats here:

MindWell Leeds (Impact Report): (https://www.mindwell-leeds.org.uk/news/heroes-is-changing-lives-in-leeds/)

South Leeds Life (New self-referral mental health programme launched in Leeds) : https://southleedslife.com/new-self-referral-mental-health-programme-launched-in-leeds/

Yorkshire Evening Post (Big Ideas Challenge Win): (https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/health/from-trauma-to-hope-the-leeds-woman-reshaping-how-the-nhs-supports-mental-health-5279071)

Trust Leeds (Self-Reliant Groups): (https://www.trustleeds.org.uk/)