Mental health pilot to be trialed by NHS Lothian

Depression

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Students across Edinburgh are to benefit from the introduction of a pilot mental health trainer post for NHS Lothian.

The Waller Mental Health Trainer will work with university and college staff and students’ organisations to raise awareness of mental health issues affecting Lothian’s students. Whoever takes the position will also focus on promoting better integration and knowledge-sharing between higher education institutions and mental health and well-being services, a key recommendation of a 2003 Royal College of Psychiatrists report into mental health amongst students.

Linda Irvine, Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategic Programme Manager for NHS Lothian, said: "I am very pleased to be part of this partnership. I believe this awareness-raising project will attempt to change attitudes and stigmas attached to mental health.

“By bringing such essential partners together, we can work towards improving mental health and mental health awareness for students in the Lothians."

The post will be funded by the Charlie Waller Memorial Trust, which aims to help develop new ways of tackling depression while also working to support and improve existing initiatives.

The trust was set up in 1997 after the suicide of Charlie Waller and has gone on to provide funding for a range of innovative projects dealing with mental health and depression, many of which have been focused on the education system. The post will be the first of its kind in Scotland, but Waller Mental Health Trainers have been active in England since 2005 supporting mental health services from bases in London and Leeds.

NHS Lothian expects to fill the post by May and the long term goal of the pilot is to identify good practise with a view to rolling out similar projects across Scotland.

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