Our History
About Rollercoaster Family Support
Rollercoaster was originally set up as a parent carer support service by Wendy Minhinnett and her sister, who are both parents with lived experience and Nicola Harmer who was a CAMHS Nurse working for Tees, Esk and Wear Valley Trust.
The parent led and professionally supported model started as a voluntary monthly face to face support group, but as demand grew so did the service. Rollercoaster went on to become a commissioned service to provide further face-to-face groups, on-line groups, opportunities for training, coproduction activites, an active Facebook community and one to peer support by employing parents who had originally accessed support themselves. Rollercoaster were also involved in a number of projects and initiatives on a local and national level that focused on inclusion of children, young people and their families in mental health care.
The work of Rollercoaster has been nationally recognised with a Positive Practice in Mental Health Award in 2017 and Wendy was awarded a British Empire Medal for services to parents of children with mental health needs. The Rollercoaster service was independently evaluated by Northumbria University in 2022.
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Where is Rollercoaster now
After 9 years of coordinating and running the Rollercoaster Project, Wendy took the personal decision to step back from directly supporting families. The Rollercoaster Facebook Community was passed into the safe hands of another parent led organisation - Parenting Mental Health and Tees, Esk and Wear valley Trust continued running parent carer support groups.
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Rollercoaster has continued to evolve by providing services and projects centred on lived experience. Wendy is continuing to share her experience, passion and creativity by working with individuals and organisations who are passionate about culture change in mental health care.
