Over £85,000 awarded to 12 organisations from Foundation Scotland’s PHP Community Impact Fund
Foundation Scotland, Scotland’s community foundation, has announced a dozen community projects in Scotland have received a funding boost thanks to the new PHP Community Impact Fund.
The fund, established by Primary Health Properties, launched last Autumn to offer support for health and wellbeing initiatives in the communities served by its medical practices.
Managed by Foundation Scotland, one of only two community foundations in the UK to pilot the new initiative, the fund is designed to provide additional and innovative services for those most in need from the patients served by practice buildings owned by PHP across the country.
Social prescribing enables a holistic approach to people’s health and wellbeing and is increasingly being used to complement the work of GPs and their teams.
The approach continues to play a vital role in helping communities recover and rebuild after the coronavirus pandemic, with a particular emphasis on services to support mental health and combat loneliness.
As one of the UK’s leading investors in modern primary healthcare facilities, PHP created the Community Impact Fund to support GP practices and their communities with this model of care.
Two Edinburgh-based projects – Thistle Health and Wellbeing (£10,000) and Carr-Gomm (£5000) – have received PHP Community Impact funding.
Jennifer McPhail, Fund Adviser from Foundation Scotland, explained: ““We were delighted PHP chose Scotland to pilot this innovative new fund. With 38 properties spread across the country we were able to reach community projects from the Lothians up to Aberdeenshire.
“The Community Impact Fund launched at a critical time following the height of the pandemic. As our NHS continues to be under immense pressure, this is a fantastic initiative from PHP to help improve patient wellbeing outcomes, quality of life and emotional wellbeing”
Teapot Trust, a mental health charity in Musselburgh that provides support for children and families coping with chronic conditions received £5,000 from the fund for a new social prescribing project providing one-to-one art therapy sessions for children and young people.
Working closely with Community Link Workers, Teapot Trust will encourage self-referrals from children, young people and families in need of support in order to improve their mental health and wellbeing.
Sarah Randell, Chief Executive, Teapot Trust, said: “We are most grateful for the support of Foundation Scotland. The funding we have received from the PHP Community Impact Fund is extending the reach of our one-to-one art psychotherapy service for children and young people struggling to cope with a chronic physical condition.
“The Teapot Trust self-referrals scheme enables families to get the support they need when they need it most. This funding is supporting referrals from either a PHP owned GP Practice or directly from one of their patient families for the first time.
“Teapot Trust is delighted to help children and families build resilience, develop healthy coping mechanisms and improve mental health and wellbeing through this work across Scotland.”
Across Scotland, a total of £86,927 was distributed among 12 organisations delivering a range of health and wellbeing programmes for their local communities.
These include services to support young people’s mental health and social inclusion, art therapy for children with long-term chronic conditions, gardening activities to promote wellbeing. This is an excellent example of true partnership working with GP’s, social prescribers and community groups coming together to deliver targeted solutions to their patients.
Harry Hyman, CEO of Primary Health Care Properties, commented: “We were delighted with the range and scope of the applications to our new Community Impact Fund.
“It’s clear that social prescribing is an important area of growth in promoting health and wellbeing and we look forward to hearing how the organisations we have funded are able to develop their services over the coming months.”
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