Project will find path to wellbeing in Sutherland
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Sutherland is the latest county to benefit from a community-led investment in young people’s mental health and wellbeing.
The Scottish Government has launched a Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing fund, which will allow the Highland Council to push forward with its project in Sutherland.
Members of the council’s health committee today gave the green light to the Sutherland ‘pathfinder’.
In a previous funding round, Caithness was the ‘pathfinder’ area, and quickly developed a wide-reaching collaborative project called Caithness Cares. This brought together community groups and service providers to help young people to thrive.
The Sutherland project will take the lessons learned from Caithness Cares and use these as a roadmap for a similar project. The Sutherland pathfinder will be specific to the unique nature of the county and will be led by and for the local community.
Some initial work has already taken place, with a youth event held on 1 September and two further stakeholder events held later that month..
There will be a dual focus on short-term actions, at the same time as developing a longer term strategic vision and gathering data.
Engaging with young people, community groups and the services in the county will be key to understanding what Sutherland needs. A steering group will be tasked with delivering on these ambitions.
Health chairwoman Linda Munro admits she initially “didn’t think this would fly”.
However, she has since been won over. “It did fly, because it was taking the learning forward, not duplicating what was done in Caithness,” she said.
“It’s community driven, so it comes from a base of knowledge.”
Ms Munro adds that the project focuses not only on children and young people but on their families too.
“That’s what puts the heart into this and delivers the art of the possible,” she said.
Asked by members when the rest of Highland could get moving with their own projects, officers said the early learnings from Caithness and Sutherland would be written up in a simple paper early next year.
