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Daily Record
Daily Record
National
Liam Smillie

West Lothian mental health charity receives prestigious award nomination

A West Lothian charity offering free mental health support for young people has been nominated for ‘Charity of the Year’ by the Scottish Charity Awards.

S.M.I.L.E Counselling offers free counselling for 11- to 24-year-olds in West Lothian – fulfilling 2253 one-to-one counselling sessions last year, allowing 361 young people in West Lothian to access mental health support.

In addition to the Charity of the Year award, the charity has also been nominated for the People’s Choice Award, in which anyone can vote for their favourite nominated charity to win the award.

Declan Harrigan, founder and CEO of S.M.I.L.E Counselling, said: “It’s amazing to be nominated in the top five for Charity of the Year and to see the recognition of not only our staff and volunteers, but for our clients, who were brave enough to come forward for counselling.

“It’s the second time we’ve been nominated, but the last one was online so it’s going to be exciting to go in person.

“We’ve opened up spaces for staff and volunteers to come so we’re really looking forward to it.

“The award event actually coincides with S.M.I.L.E’s seventh anniversary on June 15. We’re also likely to take on our 1000th client next month, so if we get the award on the same night it’ll just be phenomenal.”

Declan was previously nominated for the ‘Leading Light’ award for inspirational figures in the third sector.

As covered in last week’s Courier, also in the top five charities nominated for Charity of the Year 2022 is The Larder, a West Lothian enterprise supporting locals with employability and food security.

Declan added: “Right now waiting lists are incredibly long for accessing mental health services in West Lothian. To combat this we’re offering training services for mental health support qualifications.

“In just two years we’ve witnessed one-in-four clients exhibiting suicidal ideation turn into one-in-two clients exhibiting suicidal ideation.

“There has also been a much larger increase in under-16s referring for support from S.M.I.L.E – the reasons behind this are pretty multi-faceted, but the pandemic has definitely been a catapult for increasing mental health issues.

“Couple this with the rising cost of living, and these mental health issues for young people in West Lothian are only going to be exacerbated.”

To find out more about getting on certified training courses with S.M.I.L.E visit: https://smilecounselling.org.uk/training/

To vote for S.M.I.L.E for the People’s Choice Award visit: https://scvo.scot/scottish-charity-awards/vote/2022/charity-of-the-year/s-m-i-l-e-counselling

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