OPENING HOURS BOOST FOR MENTAL HEALTH CHARITY
A SCARBOROUGH charity is celebrating after receiving a cash injection that allows it to extend the opening hours of its resource centre.
Scarborough Survivors based on Alma Square operates the centre for people who have mental health problems, their carers, family and friends.
Currently its doors are open for 14 hours each week, from 1pm to 4.30pm on Monday to Thursday afternoons, but that will increase by more than half thanks to a £15,000 grant from North Yorkshire County Council’s ‘Stronger communities’ programme.
‘This is great news,’ said chief executive Andrea Woolcott. ‘The grant enables us to employ a part-time centre co-ordinator as well as extending the times we can open.
‘We regularly ask our service-users for feedback on the work we do on their behalf and they have told us they wanted their centre to be open longer.
‘Now, thanks to backing from the Stronger communities programme we will be able to open five hours a day from Monday to Thursday at 11.30am – and, for the first time, we will also open on Fridays, from 11am-1.30pm.’
Survivors has operated in Scarborough for more than 20 years and currently provides key support, advice and guidance for more than 300 adult service users who have or have had mental health problems.
As well as North Yorkshire County Council, it also receives funding from the Tees, Esk and Wear Valley NHS Trust and the Scarborough and Ryedale Clinical Commissioning Group.
‘This is a landmark moment for Survivors,’ added Mrs Woolcott, who has been with the organisation for eight years.
‘Many of our users live alone so giving them an opportunity to come together for more hours each day can play a big part in reducing feelings of isolation which so often can play a significant role in poor mental health.’
Note to news editors
Andrea Woolcott can be contacted on: 0751 691 6290
Working to improve mental health services since 1994
Registered Charity No. 1044058