New partnership to support young Fifers with mental health and wellbeing

As part of Fife’s ‘Our Minds Matter’ approach, Barnardo’s, Includem and Togetherall have joined forces and invested in new services for children and young people.

Barnardo’s and Includem have been commissioned by Fife Council to introduce new mental health services for children and families across the region.

In addition to helping individuals, the services will also be supporting community groups that frequently work with young people to develop skills and confidence in having meaningful conversations about mental health.

Gail McLeod, community mental health and wellbeing policy officer at Fife Council, commented: “We are passionate about designing these supports based on ongoing feedback from young people and their families to ensure we continue to adapt to offer the right supports to meet communities’ needs.”

Additional funding has been allocated to the online Togetherall platform, which provides an anonymous, digital service which is free for any young person aged 16-26 living in Fife.

This provides a supportive online community with peer-to-peer support and access to trained professionals who are available 24 hours a day and seven days a week.

There is also a choice of safe therapeutic support, including self-help courses, which means anyone who may be struggling can get support at a time that suits them, direct from their IT device.

Ms McLeod continued: “It’s important that we improve conversations about how to promote good mental health within our Fife communities and increase opportunities for young people to access support and advice when they need it.”

Rona Weir, Fife Council education manager, welcomed the support and advice being put in place.

She concluded: “We recognise that mental health like physical health can be changeable and that children and young people will have a variety of views of what works best for them at different times.

“We hope that providing options ranging from access to self-help advice, to supports from specialists which can be accessed online, to more in-person local supports will be helpful for the young people and their families.”

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