CW
(Interview with Andrew Grillo, CEO, conducted by Luca Barrett,
Communications Intern – 11/8/26)
Luca Barrett: For readers of The Oxford Blue and those who haven’t heard about Elmore, can you tell us in a nutshell what the organisation does and what its mission is?
Andrew Grillo: Elmore is a mental health charity, and what we do is provide support services to
people. We work with mental health, but also with people who are likely to have a
number of support needs, which are interlinked. What that means is that they might
find it hard to access traditional NHS support.
Our mission and what we’re trying to achieve is to try and provide that outlet for
people who have complex lives and who might otherwise fall between different
services. They wouldn’t quite be seen as someone who needs traditional support for
mental health, or substance use, and they might be told “No, this isn’t the right place
for you.” That’s where we come in –- we help them navigate services and we provide
support in a way that actually works for them. We support them in their community,
and we won’t say you have to come to this place that you’re anxious about going to,
or [go somewhere] which is unrealistic for you to get to because you’ve got so much on in your life at the moment.
LB: Going back to how the organisation started off, what inspired its creation and
how would you say it’s evolved and changed in recent years?
AG: It started in the mid to late 80s. There was a group of people in the city of Oxford who, professionals noticed, were not quite getting what they needed. Often, they’d be
homeless, street drinkers or drug users, people with mental health issues or people
who were sex working. People who were getting into trouble with the police, at risk of
exploitation and abuse. A group of like-minded professionals got together and
decided that something needed to be done, and that a team –- the Elmore team –-
needed to be set up to try and work in a different way with this group of people.
The charity was formed in 1989 after a few years of trialling that way of working. And this identity carries itself through to the present day. We still try and focus our support
on people who can’t or won’t access other services. If someone isn’t sure who could
support them, often Elmore is the answer.
It’s changed and grown over the years. Our Floating Support service, which is our
oldest service, still looks a bit like it did when it started quite a few years ago. But
more recently, we’ve added more embedded services working in children’s social care –, with adults –, where children are at risk of going into care, or [services] which work in NHS
and local hubs. It’s all about trying to find different ways of getting our support to
people who might not call us by themselves, or self-refer, but are already linked in
with other parts of the system.
LB: I know you came to Elmore last year, as the new CEO. What made you want to
work for Elmore and what attracted you to this charity in particular?
AG: I’ve worked within health and social care services in Oxfordshire for probably over 15
years now, and I’ve known Elmore for a lot of that time. When I was a support worker
in homelessness services, going back quite a few years, I worked alongside Elmore.
And when I worked at a different mental health charity, we worked closely in
partnership with Elmore as well. So I’ve always, or for a long time, been aware of the
Elmore approach, and I remember someone saying to me, when we were a bit stuck
with a client, “they sound like they could be a bit Elmore.” This is a kind of a
shorthand locally for what we do and the way we go about doing it.
I’m really passionate about working in mental health, but I’ve also worked in
homelessness and with those involved in criminal justice. So, the interest in multiple
needs with links to multiple systems makes sense from the history of my work as
well. When I worked for a mental health charity previously, the work was broad, and I
supported those with all kinds of mental health and well-being. And while I really
enjoyed that, what I liked about Elmore was that kind of real focus on a small,
specific group of people who need something unique.
LB: We discussed the fact that people supported by Elmore have complex needs,
no client really looks the same, and no circumstances are the same. But, if you
had to talk through the biggest challenges or obstacles individuals supported
by Elmore might be facing, what would they be?
AG: I think, like you say, there’s such a variety of obstacles and challenges. It’s always
that there’s more than one thing going on for them. I think actually being able to take
that first step, seek support, and work with us is often the biggest challenge.
Quite a lot of the time, people have been in the situation they’re in or in similar situations –, and it’s been getting worse –, for a number of years. Or, it’s been so gradual
that suddenly they find themselves unemployed, where they need help, and just
don’t know how to get there. Just before you and I had this conversation, someone in
the office was calling someone up for a first contact, and it took a really gentle approach
to encourage them to have that first conversation about actually what it is that they
need. We always ask people what they need and we want to be led by what
someone needs, but sometimes they don’t know, or they’re not in a position to know
what will help them through what they’re going through.
LB: Today, there are still so many misconceptions and myths surrounding mental
health that need debunking. What’s one assumption that your work previously,
and with Elmore, has taught you is untrue?
AG: I think very specific to Elmore is the idea that there are one or two things that can be
offered for some struggling with their mental health and that’s the only thing that
exists, or the only thing that will work. Antidepressants, counselling or psychological
therapies are the first, go-to things that someone might be offered if they speak to their GP.
And those things can be really helpful, and actually just one or two of those things might
resolve the issue for someone. But I think the misconception is that it’s only those things
that can help, whereas actually, there’s a whole range of different services for people out
there that might be really effective, and often these are provided by charities.
I think, if you haven’t found yourself in a situation of needing support before, then
you might validly assume that you can ask for help, and there’s a simple solution, but
it’s rarely the case that someone can be fixed or cured. Often, it’s a piece of work to
do over time, and will have missteps and lapses and relapses. Often, we trial and
error and that’s not because no one knows what they’re doing, it’s just that we’re
humans and we’re complicated.
LB: This leads into the next question – often Elmore works with people for a long
time, or with people who have a distrust of authority and who are hesitant, or
don’t know what they need. What does progress look like when it might not
necessarily be a linear process?
AG: Quite often, someone that doesn’t really seem like they want help. They might not reply
to phone calls; we might make an appointment with them at or close to their home,
and then they’re not available. Often, what’s going on is the person is gauging the
intentions of the person offering them support, and doing to see if they keep coming back to offer help.
This might be due to something in their life; maybe they’ve behaved in a certain way
or reacted or shown someone their emotional distress, and then people around them
might have then abandoned them. So sometimes, there might be some of that, and
it’s not a kind of conscious “I’m going to test this person” – it’s just that that’s how
they’re used to reacting to situations and therefore, staff that support might
experience a certain amount of hostility or distrust despite their good intentions.
This can happen early on when we’re trying to offer someone support, but it can also
happen part-way through. People may go out of contact for some time, and then
come back into contact with us. People may relapse into substance use, and,
depending on what their personal relationships are like, that might affect how much
they work with us or not. And what we’re really keen to do is not just say this
person’s disengaged, so, onto the next person. We need to respect when someone
does decide actually, I don’t want your help and support anymore, but we really keep
persevering and absolutely, it’s not linear. It’s not “I had a problem, I got support.
Everything was better for the foreseeable.” Sometimes it happens, but it’s rare. So,
yes, it can feel quite chaotic at times depending on what’s going on for that person.
LB: Is there a moment in your time as CEO so far at Elmore that has particularly
stayed with you?
AG: I think the moment that sticks out the most was in 2025. A client who we had been
supporting for a number of years got in touch and decided that, as she was coming
to the end of her time with us, what she wanted to do was raise funds for us. It wasn’t
something we suggested, but she’d got this idea, and so what she did was host a
family fun event at a local community centre. She arranged stalls, booked the space,
spoke to local businesses and organisations to get prizes for raffles, and encouraged
people in the local community to get things together for jumble sales.
She raised around £700 for us. For someone to be able to do that after what she’d
been through, having had so many challenges when she came to us, showed she’d
really worked hard and made some amazing changes in her life. After that, she was
in a position to take on that commitment, and, as someone who’s organised events
in the past at work, and outside work, I know how much effort that takes and how it
can feel like a real pressure, but she did it. It was an amazing achievement, and we
wouldn’t expect people to do that for us. That’s not what we’re here to do, not for
anything to be given in return to us, but it showed where she had got to – planning
an event like that involved so much in the way of working with other people and
engaging with the community. That was a pretty amazing thing for her to have done.
LB: You mentioned early that you’d come across Elmore in your previous work. As
Elmore is part of the Oxford Mental Health Partnership, I was wondering what
does this look like, what does it involve and why is local partnership working
so important when helping people with complex needs?
AG: The Oxford Mental Health Partnership has been in existence for over 10 years and
it’s a group of local charities and the local NHS trust working together. For the most part, it
works to offer services for people with long-term mental health issues. I guess the
idea is that there’s that variety – it’s about different services for different people, at
different times. Again, it’s not linear, so often it’s about working together, and one
party may provide supported housing, while another might focus on coping skills or
courses.
I think our role in that is often helping people get to a point where they can engage
with other services as well, if that’s what’s right for them. The organisations know
each other really well, so we understand what each other does, and hopefully that’s
really key, because it means that we can then help take that holistic approach. We
might know that, actually, our colleague at Restore, is best placed to help someone
towards a certain goal. And we know what we’re good at as well. So, hopefully it’s a
good go-to place for people if they’re looking for mental health support.
LB: Looking forward to the next few years for Elmore, what are some of the key
priorities, challenges and opportunities for the organisation?
AG: The most important thing for us is to keep carrying out high-quality work and
supporting people who need it most. Charities are in quite tough spot at the moment
– it’s like any other organisation in terms of funding, i.e. from NHS and other
statutory bodies, which is where we get most of our funding from. It’s tight, as is
funding from trusts and foundations, and people are stretched in terms of their
personal finances and the cost of living. So, we’re always needing to work efficiently,
but the quality of the work, and making sure we’re doing things as well as we can,
that we’re as creative as possible, that the services we provide are really safe, and
that we’re joined up with others, are really important.
Aside from that, it’s thinking about helping people understand what we do in our
communities, and spreading the word about the impact we have so that people do
know us and can access us. We want to think about people who don’t tend to use
our services as much, and what additional barriers people might have. Asking if we
can support them through our existing services, which are already oversubscribed,
or do we need to think about securing funding to do different pieces of work in
different ways, with different kind of groups in the local community.
LB: Finally, for anyone who has discovered Elmore for the first time through this
piece, what’s the main takeaway? What’s the main thing you would like them to
know?
AG: Knowing that there’s something out there that might work for them. People have
been struggling and not finding the right support, but there’s something out there
that’s different. It does exist, and it can help you. There’s a different way.