At the start of 2019, the HSRU Social Committee decided to nominate Mental Health Aberdeen (MHA) as our fundraising partner for the year.
Through a range of activities including bake sales, sweepstakes and craft workshops (including some run in conjunction with our sister Unit the Health Economics Research Unit), we are delighted to be able to say that our staff have so far raised almost £1,000 to help support the invaluable work carried out by MHA, this alone will pay for approximately 30 counselling sessions in their adult or youth service!
On Wednesday 21 August we were delighted to be joined by Astrid Whyte from MHA who visited the Unit and met with a cross-section of our staff to tell us more about the work that MHA do, to learn a little bit about the work of the Unit and (most importantly!) to collect the monies raised so far.
MHA has been running since 1950 and is therefore one of the oldest mental health charities in Scotland. They were the first organisation to set up group homes locally in order to enable mental health treatment and support to be delivered in a non-hospital setting, and throughout the life of the organisation they have been at the vanguard of developing and delivering high-quality treatment and support in the area of mental health.
Today, MHA have a network of around 150 staff and (highly trained) volunteers and offer support services across Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire to both adults and children. MHA also work with schools and workplaces to improve support for mental health and they also run the Aberdeen Counselling and Information Service (ACIS) and ACIS Youth.
We look forward to continuing to work with, support, and fundraise for, MHA for the rest of 2019 and beyond.