A suicide prevention charity is launching a new pilot scheme aimed at high school students.
Mikeysline will offer additional support to secondary school age pupils to help them cope with experiences of emotional distress and mental health issues.
The year-long pilot scheme will come into force from Monday to mark the start of Children’s Mental Health Week.
The programme has been initiated followed increased demand for support from the Inverness charity.
Service manager Emily Stokes said for young people the charity has become a lifeline that more and more individuals are turning to as they struggling to cope with ongoing restrictions.
She said: “During the first lockdown, we had a lot more young people come to our text based services and after we opened up the Hive, we also saw an increase in young people who needed support from us for issues that had developed for them over the lockdown.
“We have seen a continued rise in young people contacting our text base services.
“We know that, in particular, this is a really hard lockdown for young people being in the winter months and exams for the older ones being cancelled again and not knowing what’s happening. It must be a really stressful time for young people.”
She added: “Feeling isolated and cut off from their peers can for some people impact how they feel about themselves, how they feel about life and their mental wellbeing.
“Undoubtedly it will be having a negative impact on them and I’m just hoping that schools are be able to go back soon for their sake.”
The service will offer one-on-one support, where possible during the pandemic at The Hive, alongside a safe place to talk and be signposts to further support if needed.
Mikeysline will also teach coping strategies to help regulate emotions, where this will be helpful to the individual.
The resource will operate from Monday to Thursday at 4-5.40pm as well as Friday and Saturday running from 2pm-5.30pm in tandem with text-based support.
The programme has been funded by the Bank of Scotland Foundation’s Reach Grant as well as through funding from HIE’s Communities Recovery Fund.
The initial service will run for a year, with the aim and hope that the charity can gain further finance to continue it.
