Lonely feelings of past inspire Mhari to help
A long-time volunteer for a Stirling-based mental health charity has spoken of the perils of loneliness as the issue is put in the spotlight.
This week is the annual Mental Health Awareness Week, with the focus of the 2022 event on the impact of loneliness on people of all ages and backgrounds.
Research conducted by the Mental Health Foundation in Scotland has revealed that a quarter of the 1,000 adults surveyed revealed they had felt lonely in the previous month, with almost one third believing it had negatively impacted their mental health.
The added attention on the issue follows almost two years of isolation for some people during the Covid pandemic.
Stirling charity Action in Mind is among those helping people in the region with a range of mental health issues - with the impact of re-adjusting to life after the pandemic among the issues coming through the doors.
Mhari Riddell, who is also on the charity’s board of trustees, told the Observer: “It is definitely an issue because lots of people have felt cut off from key services, friends and family over the last couple of years in particular.
“Our referrals for counselling have risen drastically and nobody has ever really experienced what we’ve all gone through in the last two years and it has snuck on some people who maybe didn’t have those kind of issues before.
“As an example, I did my first fundraising event for a year recently in Callander and a girl from Glasgow approached me near the end of the day and said she hadn’t left the house for six months.
“She told me that just having someone to chat to had made a big difference; she had her routine before lockdown but that was all taken away from her and she found it really hard to adjust.
“Even for myself, there is still a fear factor with certain things - I’m due to go to a concert in the summer but I haven’t been in a stadium with 50,000 people in it since before lockdown so it’s daunting because you get out of the way of doing things.”
Mhari has first-hand experience of the issues faced by those seeking vital mental health support by Action in Mind, having been a client with the charity for 17 years and holding regular fundraising and awareness events across Stirling for the last six years.
She sought support after feeling isolated in her own home following a move to Killin, with the guidance of the charity’s rural outreach programme providing the vital boost she needed to tackle her own feelings of loneliness.
She added: “The groups that we run are a huge support for people because just bein able to sit in a room and not feel as if you’re being judged is a big step.
“It allows people to talk freely and not potentially have others sniggering behind their back and there have been a lot of people who won’t see a lot of others outside of that coming in.
“Our befriending service has been really good as well and makes a big difference to people, again just offering them someone to speak to during the week.”