Scarborough residents reminded of mental health support over winter

People in and around Scarborough are being reminded that help is there over Christmas and New Year

Author: Karen LiuPublished 24th Dec 2021

A Scarborough mental health support group is reminding people that they are there over Christmas and New Year.

'Speak Out' offers help online and in the last few months members have been meeting face-to-face, with some there just to have a chat.

Helen Speak is the founder and said:

"Loneliness is always a massive thing over Christmas and the fact that our groups are not going to be running as they would do, as we'd normally have three groups a week, so for people not to have that it then becomes a massive thing for some people, as they rely on our group sessions, but luckily we still run it online.

"We are having people coming to us and saying that these services are referring people to us, but obviously we're a long term help as we're there constantly and on-going but it's not the same sort of support as some people need, but there is obviously a massive shortage and there needs to be more groups like this.

"Regulars there are about 30-40 people that come and go, that's actually people to attend the groups but online we have more than 1,300 and you don't even need to be a member of the group to get that support. It's not just Scarborough people that we support, it's the wider community as we have people from all over the world."

The Facebook group can be found here.

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