Tag: family support service

Pilot walk-in mental health and wellbeing service to close its doors

‘NO FAMILY RECEIVING SUPPORT WILL BE LEFT ALONE’

“The Haven passes the baton to SAMH, leaving behind a wonderful legacy, proving Scotland’s mental health crisis can be reversed.” – Roslyn Neely – CEO, Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity 

A walk-in wellbeing and resilience pilot, developed to tackle Scotland’s mental health crisis will come to an end in the summer, after demonstrating unquestionably that early intervention can reduce mental health challenges among children and young people. 

The Haven opened at The Fraser Centre, Tranent in September 2023 under Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity’s ‘No Time To Wait’ strategy. It later moved to bigger premises in Haddington due to demand, and since opening the service has attracted 3,461 visits. Of these, 2,041 were children and young people and 1,420 were their affected family members. 

Roslyn Neely, CEO of Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity said: “We are incredibly sad that our pilot wellbeing and resilience service is coming to an end, but that was always our intention, as a charity we couldn’t fund this forever. 

“However we will close our doors with a huge sense of pride in what The Haven has achieved and a promise to all families receiving support that we will not turn our backs on them, we will continue to provide vital assistance, ensuring that the care and connection established through The Haven remain a core part of our work.”

Scotland’s national mental health charity, Scottish Action for Mental Health (SAMH), has recently announced The Nook, a network of mental health support hubs, which will build on the foundations laid by ECHC and the team at The Haven, marking a significant step forward for mental health support in Scotland, and beyond. 

Roslyn Neely continued: “We are delighted that our work will now contribute to a long-term, sustainable national approach to Scotland’s mental health crisis.

“The Haven passes the baton to SAMH, leaving behind a wonderful legacy, proving Scotland’s mental health crisis can be reversed, and we celebrate the fact that a major organisation like SAMH is stepping in to continue this important work. 

“Their ability to advocate for long-term government support means that children’s mental health remains firmly on the national agenda, and we wholeheartedly support this.”

The Haven is a groundbreaking two-year pilot which has successfully supported hundreds of families who have a child struggling with their mental health. Critically, it uses a walk-in format with no waiting lists.

The Haven takes a unique whole family approach, supporting not just the individual struggling with mental health challenges, but their parents, grandparents, siblings and carers.

Amazon Dunfermline team volunteer with CHAS

The team at the Amazon fulfilment centre in Dunfermline recently volunteered at a children’s hospice in Balloch that provides services for children and families across Scotland.

Children’s Hospices Across Scotland (CHAS) offers a full family support service for babies, children and young people with life-shortening conditions. This includes palliative care, family respite and support through hospices, homecare services and hospital presence.

The Dunfermline Amazon team cemented its long-term support of CHAS by volunteering at the charity’s hospice, Robin House in Balloch. The hospice offers specialist end-of-life and respite care for families and bereavement support. The Amazon team spent the day cleaning up the garden area at the hospice.

The volunteering event is part of a long-standing support programme that Amazon provides for CHAS. Since 2018, Amazon has donated more than £130,000 to CHAS, while Amazon employees have also volunteered at multiple CHAS events.

Jamie Strain, General Manager at the Amazon fulfilment centre in Dunfermline said: “Our friends at CHAS offer outstanding levels of care and a broad spectrum of services to terminally ill children and their families.

“We are so pleased to help them in any way we can, including our most recent time volunteering at Robin House to provide extra pairs of hands for the staff as they support families in impossibly difficult times.”

Natasha Blyth, an employee at the Amazon fulfilment centre in Dunfermline added: “Thank you to CHAS for allowing us to come and volunteer at the wonderful Robin House.

“We were able to see first-hand the invaluable work the staff do to support terminally ill children and their families and build on our great relationship with the staff there.”

Lara MacDonald, Senior Corporate Partnerships Executive at CHAS said: “We were delighted to welcome volunteers from Amazon EDI4 to Robin House where they supported our gardener Maggie for the day.

“Our gardens play a huge part in creating an incredible care experience for children and families during their time spent at the hospice and we are so grateful to the team for giving up their time to lend a hand.

“Every year, around 150 children die in Scotland due to a life-shortening condition. Whenever a child is ill, it has a huge impact on the whole family. We offer specialist support to families to be there for them through their darkest days and provide a safe space for reflection, rest, shared memories and help create moments of joy.

“We are grateful for our long-term partnership with the Dunfermline Amazon team. They have already raised over £130,000 for us and their continuous support helps us to run our services. Thank you to Natasha and the team for spending their time with us and making a difference to our families.”

Amazon supports the communities where it operates and has delivered free computer science and STEM education programmes to more than 700,000 students across the UK through Amazon Future Engineer.

Amazon helps community organisations transport meals and other essentials to families in need through its pro bono logistics programme, Amazon Local Good, including more than seven million healthy breakfasts to children at risk of hunger in partnership with Magic Breakfast.

And through its Multibank initiative, co-founded with former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Amazon has supported more than 200,000 families experiencing poverty, with the donation of more than 2 million surplus essential goods.

Amazon partners with Comic Relief to help people tackle poverty and is the official home of the charity’s iconic Red Nose.

Together with its employees, customers, and partners, Amazon has raised over £4.8 million to fund projects that support people struggling with the cost-of-living crisis and tackle issues such as homelessness, mental health problems, and food insecurity across the UK, and around the world.