Lochaber Hope offers online services for mental wellness

The group that offers a variety of services to help with mental wellbeing for the people of Lochaber is now taking these online.

Staff at Lochaber Hope are now working remotely from home and will be checking in with all clients via phone calls to make sure they are doing okay.

Counselling and mentoring are still taking place almost exclusively by phone or secure video conferencing services like Skype or Zoom. Counselling will be done with trained counsellors to ensure confidentiality.

Where possible, all group meetings are being conducted via online video conferencing services and, from yesterday (March 25), there will be a daily virtual chat held from 2pm.

This chat is available to absolutely everyone in the community and can accommodate up to 100 people at a time. More details can be found on Lochaber Hope’s Facebook page. A message on behalf of the whole team said: ‘We are taking heed of guidance from the government, NHS and COSCA (our governing body), and will do all we can to provide the same support as we always have; it will just look a bit different to how it was before.

‘Our mentors and counsellors are working remotely, we have customers and volunteers contact numbers to keep a check on everyone, our groups are in contact via social media and we are starting the virtual community chats.

‘Who knows?

‘Maybe we will learn a lot about what we do and what is important over the next few weeks and months. But what we’ve always known is that this wonderful community will come together, support each other and come through even stronger than before. Rest assured, we are here for you.’

Their office is now closed.