Mental health help in Scarborough Borough for Christmas and New Year

Scarborough Survivors are reassuring residents that help will be available during the festive and New Year periods.

Author: Karen LiuPublished 23rd Dec 2020

Scarborough Survivors are reassuring residents that help will be available during the festive and New Year periods.

The charity supports people with mental health distress across the Borough.

It says loneliness and isolation is becoming a big issue, especially as Christmas approaches.

Andrea Woolcott, Chief Officer, said:

"Up to the run up so far, people have seemingly managing quite well. We're still providing our telephone support system and we're still supporting around 200 people per day. This can be by text message, telephone call or a follow-up call.

"In other years our Resource Centre would have been open but unfortunately because of the pandemic, we still remain closed, But the support service will still run over the Christmas period and the New Year so the support will still be there for people.

"At the start of the pandemic, a lot of people got in touch about OCD and the cleanliness. At the moment it seems more low mood and that could be because of the time of year, nights are darker and the days are shorter. Loneliness is becoming a big one and the isolation for people. So just knowing the good people of the Borough of Scarborough that the support is out there is a huge factor for them.

"Just reach out. Please don't suffer in silence. Our service and other services are out there to help you and to support you. We can get through this and just try to remember that Christmas is just one day. It's going to be different for everybody this year, no big family gatherings and for some people, that will actually alleviate some stress not having to plan, not having to go to visit relatives that probably they don't want to visit."

There will be different contact numbers for each day of the week if you would like to get in touch with Scarborough Survivors. You can find the numbers here: https://scarboroughsurvivors.org.uk/

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