It’s Mental Health Awareness Week and concerns are being raised that even more people are struggling psychologically during the coronavirus lockdown.
Many of the services people can normally turn to are under even more pressure than normal but continue to operate despite the restrictions.
Wishaw-based charity Chris’s House is closed for the time being but staff there are working flat-out to ensure people in crisis still have somewhere to turn to.
The suicide awareness charity was forced to cancel its annual Walk of Hope event this month which takes place during the hours of darkness, finishing at dawn.
Participants are encouraged to symbolically walk from the darkness into the light but the event, now in its fifth year, had to be postponed.
Thousands have taken part in previous years events which starts off at 4am at Glasgow’s Science Centre, raising tens of thousands of pounds for the charity.
Instead those who were meant to take part this year were encouraged to join the charity’s Sunrise Appeal at 5.30am and light a candle of hope for those that had been lost to suicide.
Chris’s House founder Anne Rowan said: “We had to cancel our walk but a lot of people walked in their own areas, so that was really nice.
“We seem to have higher numbers of people contacting us, but we are always busy.
“I don’t know if it’s because of the news that lockdown was going to last longer.
“Our services are obviously affected as a lot of what we do is face-to-face, but we’re doing telephone counselling.
“All our counsellors are still working and some of them are working more than they were. I’m more than proud of them.
“They can’t look out for body language signs so they’ve had to hone their listening skills. Silences can say a lot.”
Despite the cancellation of the annual walk many decided to walk in their own areas across the country.
Elaine Logan joined in from Spain and posted a video as she walked in isolation, in memory of her son Jason Logan from Motherwell who died aged 35 in 2016.
Chris’s House are still working to provide counselling and ongoing support to anyone in suicidal crisis.
Their phones are still manned 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
