North-west community group benefit from rural mental healthy recovery grant
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A north-west community group is benefitting from a micro grant aimed at supporting and promoting mental health recovery in some of Scotland's most rural communities.
Scourie Community Development Company has spent the last 10 years delivering projects and improvements in an environmentally friendly way to strengthen community resilience and provide solutions to overcome inequalities.
The Rural Community Engagement Fund, facilitated by mental health charity Support in Mind Scotland and provided by the Scottish Government, is specifically aimed towards people who face additional inequalities in achieving good mental health after the Covid pandemic.
Scourie Community Development Company said: “We have provided free counselling sessions firstly to people in the village but then due to demand to anyone living in west Sutherland since the start of the pandemic.
“The generous funding from Support in Mind Scotland and the Scottish Government will provide people in west Sutherland with another valuable option on their healing journey. Being able to experience a holistic healing retreat will provide participants with a safe space to learn new tools to keep body and mind well.”
It is hoped that the grants raise awareness of the need to look after mental health and seek help and support, as well as averting crisis and addressing specific barriers to accessing mainstream support services.
Jim Hume, convenor of the National Rural Mental Health Forum, said: “Thanks to the Scottish Government, this larger community engagement project will work directly with people in local communities to raise awareness, identify need and work collectively to develop creative local solutions to address local needs as we recover from Covid.”
The second round of applications to receive a grant from the Rural Community Engagement Fund are now open and will close on July 15, 2022.
Settlements with a population of less than 3000 people are defined as rural.
