Wendy Minhinnett

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Wendy lives in County Durham; she loves to spend time with her daughter and Grandog Minnie (who is posing in the picture). One of her favourite things to do is visiting cafes for cuppas and cake (in moderation of course!).

Wendy loves to use creative ideas to engage, solve problems and connect with people. She is passionate about the genuine role co-production, lived experiences and peer support can play to make a difference in mental health and people’s lives. She believes solutions come when people work together with an open, honest approach that appreciates, acknowledges, and makes space for differences.

Wendy has over 30 years’ experience working in communities, including schools, public services, and the voluntary sector. For the past 10 years, her focus has been on lived experience working in children and young people’s mental health, following a personal journey. This led to the creation of Rollercoaster Parent Carer Peer Support Project which ran for 9 years promoting a parent led, professionally supported model and won a National Positive Practice in Mental Health Award in 2017.

Wendy has been involved in a variety of initiatives locally and nationally to promote the role parents can play in improving children’s and young people’s mental health. Wendy has played a key role in the growth of parent carer peer support, co-developing the first national parent carer peer support training. She is a parent co-author for MindEd for Families, has worked as a parent/carer representative for the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health, Royal College of Psychiatrists and has held a variety of public and patient involvement roles in NHS England.

Wendy was awarded a BEM in 2022 for services to parents of children with mental health needs

Wendy is a late diagnosed Autistic and ADHD woman who is partially deaf. She puts her differences to good use and is passionate about creating inclusive spaces for neurodivergent individuals, those in lived experience roles and all humans! She has joined FoNS as one of the co-production leads and believes at the heart of all co-production is people: people coming together and connecting, being vulnerable, scared, excited, curious, imperfect and all the things that come with being human!  Wendy is excited to work alongside the team, organisations and people she meets along the way to help make a difference together.