Martyn’s Monday Club opens doors to young people
A successful mental health support group for men and women has now expanded to welcome young people.
Martyn’s Monday Club is opening the doors of its Breadalbane Street premises to male and female young people aged between 16 and 21 between 6pm-8pm every Wednesday.
Chairman and founder Des MacMillan said it had planned to open a group for young people earlier this year until the coronavirus pandemic struck.
Mr MacMillan said: ‘This is the first opportunity we have had and it will be a safe place for youths to come and talk together.
‘They don’t have to have a mental health issue, it’s just a place where they can get support and have a talk.’
Young people will have found the coronavirus lockdown tough and can also face uncertainty at this time around exam results and future careers, along with the transition from being teenagers to young adults, said Mr MacMillan, who also volunteers for See Me Scotland, a national programme to end mental health stigma and discrimination.
‘They don’t need to have mental health issues, it’s just a place they can get support and talk.’
The demand for a youth group in Oban exists and the charity is also seeking young people aged between 16 and 21 to train as a facilitator so that the group can be led by a peer.
Initially, Sophie King, aged 20, of Oban, has volunteered to lead the group, and her mum, Lorraine, is already co-ordinator for the service.
Mr MacMillan said many adults had commented that they wished they had access to such a group while growing up, which was another reason for establishing a service for young people.
Since Martyn’s Monday Club was first established in 2019, it has seen more than 135 people - drawing people from Fort William and as far away as Callander, a 140-mile round trip, which demonstrated the acute shortage of such groups, with some regarding its services as ‘life changing’.