In partnership with NHS Lothian and City of Edinburgh Council we have embedded a clinical psychologist across our accommodation services.

This project is designed to help individuals living in our homes have better support to cope with their profound mental health problems. Many struggle to access mainstream health services due to lack of trust, addiction issues and difficulty attending appointments.

As a result many have never received appropriate support to deal with lifelong mental health issues stemming from trauamtic experiences, often in childhood. Being based in our accommodation allows our psychologist to build trusting relationships and meet people when and where works for them.

As well as providing on-site low level interventions to improve mental health, she is also able to advocate with mainstream services to help people access longer term support. Many services will not accept individuals who have been recently homeless as they are not considered stable enough to access therapy.