World Mental Health Day 2024: Spotlight on our Angus Peer Support service
Today is World Mental Health Day 2024. To mark the day we’re shining a spotlight on our Angus Mental Health Peer Support service, which has supported over 7,000 people in Angus over the past four years.
Our peer workers, with their own lived experience, offer vital mental health support in GP surgeries, schools and other community settings.
Find out more about our life-changing service below.
About the service
Hillcrest Futures’ Angus Mental Health Peer Support service is made up of a team of peer workers who each have their own lived experience of mental health and wellbeing challenges. They use their own experiences to relate to individuals and provide brief interventions of support to people who are struggling.
Our team is made up of 16 people and works throughout the north locality of Angus. They deliver support to adults over the phone and in GP surgeries in Forfar, Kirriemuir, Edzell, Brechin and Montrose.
Our Angus Young People’s Service offers support to young people aged 11 to 16 within schools and community-based settings.
Our peer workers can offer a person up to three appointments, giving them a safe space to speak about their mental health struggles, learn coping strategies, and self-manage and resolve problems they may have.
The peer workers share tips, tools and coping strategies that they have used themselves in their own mental health journeys. They provide hope to others as they show that it is possible to grow, learn and have a fulfilling life while still coping with significant, and sometimes lifelong, challenges.
The peer team has fantastic relationships with partnering organisations which they signpost people to for further support.
Collaborative approach
Our Angus Mental Health Peer Support service is part of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Enhanced Community Support (ECS) Hub, which is a screening hub used to manage referrals for adults over the age of 16 years old, who need additional support or specialist care and treatment for their mental health and wellbeing, self-harm and/or substance use.
The hub model comprises of staff from Community Mental Health Teams (CMHTs), Angus Integrated Drug and Alcohol Recovery Service (AIDARS), Angus Psychological Therapies Service, Mental Health and Wellbeing Peer Support and Community Link Workers.
Working in partnership means that no referral is rejected and the patient pathway for support is a lot smoother. The peer workers aim to attempt to make contact within 48 hours of receiving the referral.
Our 11 to 16 year old Young People’s Service supports local schools, runs workshops and attends events to provide support to young people in Angus. These are extremely interactive and receive high levels of positive feedback from our young people who think that our peer team should be a class every week.
The team also attends events across Angus to provide support and information about the services they offer, enabling people to find out more, while reaching as many individuals as possible.
Testimonials
Hillcrest Futures Mental Health Peer Team has received over 7,000 referrals from starting the service in August 2020. We receive a lot of feedback and below are some testimonials for people supported by our Angus Mental Health Peer Support service.
“I self-referred to the community mental health team (CMHT) through my GP surgery and was given four appointments with Karen McLay from Hillcrest Futures’ Angus Mental Health Peer Support service. She was so helpful in finding me the right support through a very difficult period in my life. She had a lovely, down to earth approach and made me feel really listened to. I felt she genuinely wanted to help, and her friendly, human approach made it easy to build up a rapport.”
“My peer worker Kelly is an amazing person who listens without judgement, challenges empathically and made an anxious time a lot less anxious. She respected my personal experience, listened, was accessible and highly professional. She made what has been such a stressful time better by being a ray of light, and some good laughs too! Having never accessed, or felt I required a service like this, it was slightly intimidating, but this was fantastic. I have to give so much thanks and respect to provide this service – you are all simply amazing!”
“Morag listened to my recent mental health troubles and provided a much needed sounding board. This helped greatly with realising that my problems were mostly situational (work related) and allowed me to tailor my action plan on resolving the situational based problems. Thankfully the action plan has so far been successful, and I feel like I have a very positive and bright future ahead. Thank you for supporting and empowering me to own my own recovery plan.”
Find out more
If you would like to find out more about the service, email AngusMentalHealthPeerSupport@hillcrestfutures.org.uk. Follow the service on Instagram for latest news and updates www.instragram.com/hillcrestangusmentalhealth.