Perthshire support network receives £10,000 lottery boost

A Perthshire group has been awarded £10,000 to help provide care, support and activities to people living in rural areas.

The Care and Wellbeing Co-operative, which includes therapists and wellbeing specialists, is one of more than 200 arts, sports and community groups across Scotland to have received a cash boost from the National Lottery Awards for All Scotland fund.

The money will be used to further develop the co-operative’s work with older, lonely people across rural Perthshire, as well as people living with dementia and mental health problems and children with disabilities and their carers.

The organisation was set up in 2015 and works alongside local communities, the local health and social care partnership, private care providers and voluntary sector groups.

Its members, who are based across rural Perthshire, offer a wide variety of services, including respite support, community care, independent living solutions, befriending, sports massage, counselling, stress management, herbal medicine and therapeutic gardening.

The aim, say project leaders, is to help older people and those with additional needs and health problems to lead the life they want.

Pitlochry-based project co-ordinator Hayley Groves welcomed the boost.

“We are absolutely delighted to have been awarded this significant amount of funding from the National Lottery Awards for All Scotland,” she said. “The approach we take to providing care is different and innovative.”