HealthcareHopefulLondon9 Oct 20261 min read

A coffee group helps people find friendship after a mental health crisis

People recovering from a mental health crisis are finding company through Hammersmith & Fulham’s Coffee Group. It has supported more than 160 people and now has around 80 regular members, West London NHS Trust reported on 9 October.

Crisis support worker George Graham started the group in 2014 after noticing how isolated people could become when treatment ended. About four people attended at first; referrals now come from several mental health services and primary care.

The group’s Thursday gatherings include conversations, activities and outings. In a June 2025 account, the trust described members travelling together by public transport to Kew Gardens, with discounted entry for those receiving benefits.

The glass Palm House at Kew Gardens with visitors on the path — Kew’s Palm House, one of the places visited on the 2025 outing. Archive photograph from 2005; the visitors pictured are not identified as group members. Photo: Adrian Pingstone / Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

These are accounts from the service and its members. Neither report measures whether the group reduces relapses or hospital admissions, so its clinical effects remain unproven.

But the practical offer is clear: somewhere to keep meeting people after a crisis. As one member said of the Kew trip: “We are more than just a group. We are a family.”