Your care, your say, before you need it.

Trusted peers from Black, Asian and other communities in Greater Manchester. We listen, explain your rights and help you plan ahead.

Talk to us How it works

Two Black men, one younger in a beanie and one older with a grey beard, talk as they walk along a canal towpath past red-brick mills in Salford.

Where would you like to start?

Nearly 4×

Black people had nearly four times the recorded detention rate of white people in England in 2024–25.

Many people in our communities are told to be careful what they say to services. So they seek help late, when choices have already been taken away. Trust is the root problem, and it is where we start.

Read the evidence Source: NHS England, Mental Health Act Statistics, Annual Figures 2024-25

2×+
In Greater Manchester, Black people were more than twice as likely as white people to be detained under the Mental Health Act in 2024–25.
Source: Wigan Today, Greater Manchester detention figures(opens in a new tab)
74%
of children released from custody in England and Wales reoffended within a year, in the 2022–23 cohort.
Source: Sentencing Academy, sentencing children(opens in a new tab)
25%
lower risk of compulsory admission with crisis-planning interventions, according to a review of five trials involving adults with psychotic illness or bipolar disorder.
Source: Molyneaux et al. 2019, BJPsych Open(opens in a new tab)

Support from people who have been there.

We are preparing our first pilot in Salford and Manchester, starting with peer support and community voice. The rest follows once the pilot shows it is safe and working.

Starting in our pilot

Peer support and planning ahead

A trusted peer by your side, your rights explained, and a written plan for how you want to be treated in a crisis.

Find out more

Starting in our pilot

Community voice

Tell services what it was really like, anonymously, in your own language. We make sure they hear it.

Find out more

Coming next

Start on WhatsApp. No app, no waiting room.

Most people we support live on WhatsApp, so that is where we start. Every message goes to Ownsay’s one number, never anyone’s personal phone.

1
Say hello, your way
Message us on WhatsApp, scan a card in a community venue, use our website, or ask someone to refer you.
2
A short, private chat
A coordinator asks what would help. We never ask about a diagnosis, medication or immigration status.
3
Meet your peer
We suggest someone from outside your circle, and check privately that you don’t already know each other.
4
Write your plan
In your words and your language. You approve every line before it becomes part of your plan.
5
You decide who sees it
Share it by secure link, take it back at any time, and get told whenever it is opened.

See every step

10:034G

Ownsay

Business account

Choose an option

Try it: tap an option. An example of our WhatsApp menu, not a live chat.

A plan in your words, that goes where you send it.

If you become unwell, the people treating you should know what helps, what doesn’t, who to call and how to talk to you. Your plan tells them.

Write it with your peer, in any order, in your own language
AI can tidy your words into clear lines, but nothing goes in until you approve it
Dated, versioned and reviewed every six months
Shared only by you, by secure link, and taken back whenever you like

A plan is your statement of wishes. It is not legal advice and not a binding refusal of treatment.

My plan, section 3

What helps, and what doesn’t

0 of 4 approved

Your words, kept as you said them

“When I’m getting bad I stop sleeping and I don’t want people around me. Loud wards make it worse. My sister calms me down. Please let me pray.”

Draft
When I start to become unwell, I stop sleeping and want to be alone.
Draft
Loud, busy places make things worse for me. A quiet room helps.
Draft
My sister helps me feel calm. Please contact her early.
Draft
Please give me time and a private space to pray.

Nothing becomes part of your plan until you approve it. Example only.

Promises you can hold us to.

They are built into how the Ownsay Hub works: who can see what, what gets shared, and what our technology will never do.

On your side

We work alongside the NHS, councils and other services, but we are independent of them. We answer to the people we support.

Nothing is shared without your say-so

Every share is checked against what you agreed. The only exception is if someone’s life or safety is at serious risk, and then a named safeguarding lead must record why.

Your data is never sold

Not to anyone, not ever. No adverts, no tracking pixels, no marketing messages.

One trusted number

Every message goes through Ownsay. Our peers and mentors never use their personal phones, and they never see your number unless their role needs it.

Someone outside your circle

For peer support we match you with someone outside your own community by default, and check privately that you don’t already know each other.

AI helps with paperwork, never with you

It translates and drafts wording you approve. It never listens to conversations, scores risk, gives advice or learns from your data.

All our promises

New rights are coming. They should reach everyone.

New rights only help people who know about them and trust the system enough to use them. We help people write an advance statement now, and move it to the new format when the law is ready.

18 Dec 2025
The Mental Health Act 2025 becomes law.
From 2027
New rights start in stages, including advance choice documents and choosing a nominated person.
Up to 10 years
The changes roll out over time. Until each one starts, the current rules apply.

Know your rights

Ownsay started on home visits in Salford.

Our founder worked as a peer support worker in Salford: home visits, walks, listening. Black and Asian clients opened up more readily than they did with white colleagues.

The work showed the other side too. Some people didn’t want a peer from their own close-knit community at all. Ownsay is built on both lessons.

Read our story