Centre for Mental Health chief executive Dr Sarah Hughes will be leaving the organisation after more than five years after being appointed chief executive of the charity Mind.
Sarah Hughes became chief executive of the Centre in 2017. She has led the organisation through the Covid-19 pandemic, building an organisation that leads the way in tackling mental health inequalities and pursuing social justice nationwide.
Centre for Mental Health chair, Professor Dame Sue Bailey, said: “Sarah Hughes has led the Centre through some of the toughest times any of us have witnessed. Thanks to her principled leadership and vision, the Centre has championed mental health equality consistently and fearlessly throughout the last five years. Sarah’s leadership has challenged established notions of what a charity chief executive can and should do.
“The Centre has worked alongside our colleagues at Mind for many years, and I know we will continue to do so in the future in partnership with Sarah. The Centre is in a strong position thanks to Sarah’s leadership and its brilliant staff team. We will continue to thrive and make a difference to people’s lives through the quality of the Centre’s work and its unstinting commitment to social justice and better mental health for all.”
Sarah Hughes said: “I am leaving the Centre with a heavy heart, but with pride at what we have achieved with such a small but mighty organisation during the last five years. We have spoken out for mental health equality, for racial justice, and for better mental health services. We have trained hundreds of employment workers to enable people with mental health difficulties to fulfil their potential in work. We have led the way in peer research and in creating platforms for lived experience and creative expression such as our writer-in-residence programme and our unique A Year in Our Lives project. And we have highlighted the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on the nation’s mental health and the need for systemic change to address inequity and injustice throughout the mental health system.”
