Mental health service for Aberdeen pupils 'enhanced'

Text-based counselling will be among the services on offer

An "enhanced" mental health counselling service will be offered to Aberdeen school pupils after the collapse of a charity which offered support, the council has said.

Mental Health Aberdeen (MHA) - which had provided face-to-face sessions in primary and secondary schools - announced in July it was closing with immediate effect.

The sudden closure led to concerns that pupils returning for the new term would have no access to support services.

Aberdeen City Council said it had now agreed a support partnership with Scottish Action for Mental Health (SAMH).

The council said its "new model of support" would include face-to-face counselling by appointment in schools and a listening service offering four sessions with the same child and young person practitioner.

There will also be eight-week "resilience programmes", support sessions for parents and carers, and a text-based counselling service with an average waiting time of no more than 10 minutes before being connected with a counsellor.

Aberdeen City Council said officers in the council's Education and Procurement Services had been "working tirelessly" to secure alternative provision.

"SAMH, which already delivers highly evaluated adult services in the city, will now extend its offer to younger residents," a statement said. "Support will be tailored to individual needs.

"Notably, the new offer includes weekend and after-school access, reflecting how young people prefer to engage with mental health services."

The council added: "We are confident that this partnership with SAMH represents a significant step forward in ensuring timely, accessible and effective mental health support for our children and young people."

'Working tirelessly'

SAMH chief executive Billy Watson said: "As Scotland's national mental health charity, we moved quickly to offer assistance when it became clear that young people and their families in Aberdeen could be left without the mental health support on which they'd come to rely."

He said they had a "strong presence" in Aberdeen already so were well-placed to help.

"We look forward to working with Aberdeen City Council to make sure that the city's young people and their families can ask once and get help fast," he added.

MHA said it had taken the decision to close with immediate effect after exploring all available options.

The charity - which operated for 75 years - added it faced a complex set of circumstances, including growing pressure on its services.

Charity regulator OSCR later said allegations of "inappropriate expenditure" were being probed after it received "concerns from the public".

Following MHA's closure, parents and youth counsellors had said they were deeply concerned that it was leaving some pupils without their "lifeline".

Two former MHA counsellors told BBC Scotland News they were "devastated" at the loss of the service, and the strong relationships they had formed with pupils, which they said were essential in helping them.