Self-help app now available
Samaritans Scotland has launched a new free app offering struggling North Lanarkshire residents practical ways to cope with life.
The“Samaritans Self-Help”app features a mood tracker that allows people to record how they feel.
It recommends evidence-based coping techniques based on how you’re feeling, such as meditation, muscle relaxation and breathing exercises.
The digital support tool was launched to coincide with Mental Health Awareness Week which took place last week.
It also provides suggestions for activities that others have found useful and acts as a means of accessing support for people struggling to use the Samaritans’s listening service, or who find difficulty talking to someone and expressing their feelings.
Samaritans has also developed new online resources for people who are supporting others who are struggling.
The organisation is also encouraging people to share messages of support and encouragement through their Cup O’ Kindness campaign using #CupOKindness and #KindnessMatters.
Some of the charity’s near 1000 volunteers in Scotland have been sharing their own experiences and ways of showing kindness.
Rachel Cackett, Samaritans Scotland Executive Director, said: “Finding ways to show kindness to ourselves and look after our wellbeing is so important during this challenging and uncertain time. With access to face-to-face support services and networks limited, digital resources like this have a vital role to play in supporting mental wellbeing.”
Samaritans product manager Felix Macpherson said:“Over the past two years we have worked alongside people who have experienced emotional distress and suicidal thoughts who have found it difficult to talk to a Samaritans volunteer, in order to understand what they find most useful for coping with distress.
“We brought the launch of Samaritans Self-Help forward in the hope that it will prove a valuable place for support for those observing social distancing, facing prolonged isolation or lacking the privacy to make a call to the helpline.”
Visit selfhelp. samaritans.org to download the new web-based app.