"Redefining bipolar, reclaiming lives"
Award Winning Service!
Helping you get back control
At The Bipolar Lift, we provide all-round help for people with bipolar disorder and their families. Through emotional support and practical advice, the individuals we work with gain the tools to understand and better manage their condition and get back control of their lives.
Need help now?
We provide a national free telephone and Zoom support service. If you live in the Nottingham/Nottinghamshire area, a member of our team can meet you face-to-face. Reach out to arrange a meeting on 0115 7737537 .
Please note that we cannot offer crisis support. Our telephones are manned during office hours only, and emergency cases will be referred to the Emergency Services or Crisis Teams.
"I am grateful for the regular contact. It has really helped in my recovery."
Free Group Support Sessions
We provide a safe environment where people tackling bipolar can speak about the challenges they face. Through group sessions, they’re able to connect with others who are dealing with similar experiences and find strength in community. Through one-to-one assistance, our qualified professionals can offer emotional support as well as informed advice and guidance on employment, personal finances and welfare. Our experienced team can also help facilitate conversations with employers or welfare services.
"I can't thank The Bipolar Lift enough for helping with my PIP appeal, I won my appeal!"
Fulfilling Lives
Support that reaches everyone
Bipolar does not affect every community equally, and neither does access to care. Black people are 3.8 times as likely as white people to be detained under the Mental Health Act (NHS England, 2024 to 25), and people from South Asian and other racialised communities often face stigma, language barriers and long waits before anyone recognises what is happening.
We exist to change that. As an organisation led by directors from the BME community with lived experience of these barriers, we work to make sure people who are too often missed get the right support, early. Our services are open to everyone affected by bipolar, whatever their ethnicity, faith or background.
How we do it
- Trusted in the community: we work alongside community centres, groups and local organisations to reach people where they are
- Culturally aware: we understand how family, faith and community shape how people experience bipolar, and we work with families, not around them
- No wrong door: phone, Zoom or face to face, at a pace that suits you
Changing the system, not just filling gaps
What people tell us shapes how we push for change. We work with Nottingham Trent University, local NHS mental health teams and trusts, and community organisations to turn lived experience into evidence, better practice and fairer services across Nottingham and Nottinghamshire.
Award Winning Service
- Winners, Rushcliffe Awards 2022
- Winners, British Muslim Awards 2022
- Winners, Double Impact Awards 2023
- Winners, Health and Wellbeing Champions 2024, Nottingham City
- Finalists, MBCC Awards 2024, 2025 and 2026, Health and Wellbeing
- Featured in a BBC documentary and on BBC Radio Nottingham
- Case study for business students at Nottingham Trent University, where we are Industry Fellows
Our Impact
We have supported more than 600 people living with bipolar and their families, an 18% increase on the year before. Around 1 million people in the UK live with bipolar and 40% receive no support at all so every one of these numbers matters.
What we delivered (September 2026)
- People with bipolar supported - 600+, up 18%
- Initial consultations completed - 600
- Face to face one to one sessions - 220
- People on our active caseload - 310
- Regular group and event attendees - 310, up 7%
- Members of our online community - 5,150
- Volunteers - 9
- Age range of people we support - 18 to 85
What changes for people
- People who first came with a support worker now attend on their own, growing in confidence and self management.
- Friendships formed in our groups continue outside them, often for people who had been too anxious to leave home.
- People win PIP appeals and receive backdated payments they were entitled to.
- Some people we have supported return as volunteers, giving back to the community that helped them.
