Taking forward the Caithness Mental Wellbeing Pathfinder Project

Mental health services have become an increasingly important topic in Caithness in recent months following several tragic events and issues relating to suicide and addiction. At a special meeting of the Caithness Committee this morning (Fri 11 December), the focus was on launching the Caithness Mental Wellbeing Pathfinder Project to bring statutory service providers across health, education, housing, and emergency services, third sector delivery partners, politicians, community representatives, families, and young people themselves together to move forward in a connected way.

The Scottish Government has provided The Highland Council with a grant of £534,000 to support young people’s mental health and wellbeing post-Covid, and additionally provided £178,000 to plan and prepare for the development of community mental health and wellbeing services for 5- to 24-year-olds, their families and carers. It was agreed at the Health, Social Care and Wellbeing Committee on the 12 November that Caithness would lead as a Pathfinder.

In selecting Caithness for the pilot, it was acknowledged that the local community have played an outstanding role in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic and there is a real opportunity to capture this momentum and build on all the excellent work going on across the area.

Meetings have taken place locally with key partners to identify immediate as well as long term actions and the report discussed by the committee today was shaped in a large part by the feed-back from young people who took part in special workshop sessions.

The report presented today sets out the context in Caithness, recognising the serious issues affecting mental health and wellbeing of young people and their families, the engagement and consultation that has taken place, the detailed feedback from the workshops and the first draft of a Project Action Plan which builds upon key workstreams of a wellbeing programme for Caithness young people and their families.

Chair of the Caithness Committee, Cllr Nicola Sinclair said: “Today felt like a landmark moment in wholeheartedly tacking an issue that has plagued our community for decades. We discussed the need for education, compassion and early support to the most vulnerable people in our society, and in particular this Pathfinder aims to rediscover hope in our community and rebuild a sense of worth amongst our young people. The overriding message coming from this meeting was that the public agencies are listening and ready to try new approaches – most importantly, we finally have both the funding and the strategic commitment to take it forward. The community will be essential in making all this work – they expertly guided us through the turmoil of the last year and we owe it to everyone who has worked so tirelessly to now stand united and make positive progress in 2021. I look forward to meeting again in January and continuing to develop this important programme at pace.”

Following this debate the Committee resumed to ratify the details of the proposed local plan and six action plan workstreams were approved:

1. Developing a range of activities for young people that are inclusive, age- appropriate, accessible, and relevant

2. Creating ‘safe spaces’ for young people to gather, such as spaces that are warm, connected, ‘cool’ and provide access to ‘safe people’ including peer-to-peer support

3. Supporting parents and carers alongside families at an early stage with practical help and interventions, to prevent escalating issues reaching crisis point and break the cycle

4. Building understanding of mental health and wellbeing through education programmes, both formal and informal curriculum and community/family based to improve knowledge and understanding and tackle stigma

5. Developing appropriate support for people in crisis on a 24/7/365 basis through a mix of community based ‘listening ear’ support, recovery, and professional mental health support, on-line and self-support strategies as required

Members also agreed to the recruitment of a strategic lead to oversee the Pathfinder project to ensure the work and good practice is shared and developed across other Highland Communities; and to ensure that people with lived experience are at the heart of the pathfinder.

Cllr Sinclair added: “Key to the success of the Pathfinder project will be bring statutory service providers across health, education, housing, and emergency services, third sector delivery partners, politicians, community representatives, families, and young people themselves together to move forward in a connected way. It is also about empowered communities.  A great deal of community activity is already in place, but it is important that this is built upon. The action plan will make clear how the grant funding will be allocated to the third sector groups operating locally to enhance provision.

“Young people must be at the heart of what we do. The voice of young people is critical in shaping services that are inclusive and relevant. This will involve helping young people to develop skills and empower them to grow and learn and become ambassadors for the programme within their own community.”

Fellow Caithness Councillor Karl Rosie said: “During these challenging times having hope can be a strong incentive to bring about change. We must build hope in our community by tackling challenges openly and helping to create a sense of place for everyone. The feedback from everyone who took part today was very encouraging and we will work tirelessly to pull together a package of support that we hope will make a genuine difference. We ask the public to get behind this and continue to support one another as they have done so well in recent months."

Following feedback from Caithness members and everyone who took part in the wider debate, a more detailed action plan will be prepared in early January 2021 and a workshop held once the post of Strategic Lead has been filled. Meanwhile local engagement and listening exercises will be ongoing.