Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Highlands mental health charity marks 10th anniversary

Birchwood Highland Recovery Centre, Inverness.
Birchwood Highland Recovery Centre, Inverness.

A Scottish mental health charity is celebrating its 10th anniversary after a decade of pioneering work in the Highlands.

Birchwood charity is marking the milestone of its 23-bed recovery centre in Inverness, which is the only facility of its type in Scotland.

The centre was transformed in March 2008 from a traditional residential care home into a modern recovery centre for individuals suffering with mental health.

Emily Stokes, chief executive of Birchwood Highland, said: “When we first adopted the recovery model in 2006 throughout all of our services, we knew the former Birchwood House would need significant modernisation.

“This was to create more flats than single rooms to prepare people for moving on in the future to their own homes, rather than viewing the recovery centre as a ‘home for life’ as care homes were traditionally regarded.

“We strongly believed back in the benefits of the mental health recovery model, where the focus is on an individual’s whole life and what they can achieve and the quality of their life, not just on their illness and the barriers that this can create for individuals.

“We remain, to this day, pioneers of mental health recovery in the Highlands.

“I’m extremely proud to have seen the recovery centre progress into such a wonderful facility, consistently receiving excellent grades from the Care Inspectorate, our regulatory body, and it’s good to see so many people moving successfully on to their own homes over the years.”

To celebrate the anniversary, residents have been working alongside local music maestro Steve Robertson to produce a charity single through the Music is Life Scotland project.

“The Long Winding Road (Through the Seasons)” was created from concepts suggested by residents, including the idea of writing about how the changing seasons made them feel.

It will be released on Friday on iTunes, Amazon and Spotify.

Further celebrations are due to take place at the centre including a birthday party on Wednesday, as well as the planting of 10 apple trees to mark each year of the centre’s existence.

Annabel Mowat, deputy chief executive and service manager at the centre, added: “We work hard to consistently embrace mental health recovery and continually develop our understanding of this.”