Mental Health

Listed below are some organisations / support groups that provide information and advice about mental health.
Although the information was originally collected for use within the Linlithgow community we hope the list could be useful to others.

For further information on any of the organisations - just follow the website link/s or where there are no website links available email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Action For Sick Children

UK children's health care charity, specially formed to ensure that children receive the highest standard of care possible. Campaigns on all aspects of healthcare, whether in hospital in the community or at home and from national policies to individual family cases. 

Action for Sick Children (Scotland) 

Helping sick children and young people meet their health care needs in partnership with parents, carers and professionals.

Admiral Nurses This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Admiral Nurses work with family carers and people with dementia, in the community and other settings.

Age Scotland

Provides information and advice to help older people understand their rights, make informed choices and access appropriate support. Information and advice on benefits, care and support, health and wellbeing, dementia, legal and family issues, money matters, housing and energy. Age Scotland Helpline and Friendship line 0800 12 44 222 Monday to Friday 9am - 5pm.

BBC Music Memories

Website designed to use music to help people with dementia reconnect with their most powerful memories. The BBC working with music and dementia charities.

Be Real: body confidence for everyone

Provides help and resources to help change attitudes to body image and help everyone put health above appearance and be confident in our bodies.

beat (beating eating disorders) This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

Provides helplines, online support and a network of UK-wide self-help groups, supporting anyone affected by eating disorders or difficulties with food, weight and shape. Scottish Helpline 0808 801 0432

Bipolar Scotland

Provide information, support and advice for people affected by bipolar disorder and those who care for them. Also promote self-help throughout Scotland, and inform and educate about the condition.

BiPolar UK This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Supports individuals with the condition of bipolar, their families and carers. Aims to enable people affected by pibolar disorder to take control of their lives - self help groups, helpline (0333 323 3880), information and other services.

Breathing Space 

Provides information and support for anyone in Scotland over the age of 16 experiencing low mood, depression or anxiety. Free, confidential, phone service. Advisors come from a range of mental health, counselling and social work backgrounds.

Brothers in Arms

Offering support to men in Scotland, of any age, who are down or in crisis and empower them to ask for help when they need it, without feeling a failure if they do. 

Butterfly Scheme 

an opt-in scheme in hospitals, that empowers people with dementia and their carers to choose the care they want.

The Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM)

A charity dedicated to preventing male suicide. It offers confidential, anonymous and free support, information and signposting to men anywhere in the UK through their helpline channels. 

Canine Therapet visiting service

Animal assisted therapy - the Therapet visiting service is organised and carried out entirely by volunteers for Canine Concern Scotland Trust. Visits are carried out for the elderley in sheltered housing, residential accommodation, a long-stay geriatric ward. Also adults and children who have a physical disability or learning difficulty and those suffering a terminal illness.

Carers of West Lothian 

Information, advice and support for all unpaid carers and people with disabilities.

Combat StressThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

A UK Veterans' mental health charity that offers a range of specialist treatment and welfare support. 24 Hour Helpline 0800 138 1619

COVID 19 and Mental Health

Provides information about how the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted on mental health. Includes some tips and guidelines that can be practiced at home to help look after your physical and mental wellbeing.

CovidAid

Advice, information and support: from vaccines and testing to mental health support; long covid; loss, grief, and bereavement support. A charity working with existing services provided by other sectors and groups to identify the gaps where people may need support. 

CrossReach

Social care and support service by the Church of Scotland. Available to all people in Scotland.

Dementia Helpline Scotland 

The 24 hour Dementia Helpline is a freephone Scottish service providing information, signposting and emotional support to people with the illness, their families, friends and professionals.

Dementia SCIE

Resource developed for people who work in nursing, residential or domiciliary settings but useful for anyone who comes into contact with a person with dementia. Offers practical tips, tools and activities

Dementia UK This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Helps families face dementia. Offers specialist one-to-one support and expert advice for people living with dementia. Their Admiral Nurses work hand in hand with families, helping them cope with the fear, uncertainty and difficult everyday reality of dementia. Helpline 0800 888 6678

Eating Disorders In Males: National Centre for Eating Disorders

Information and advice about male eating disorders, definitions, signs and symptoms, treatments, getting support including support groups. 

Epilepsy Action

Provides a wide range of advice, support and information for people living with epilepsy.

Every Mind Matters

Gives simple and practical advice to get a healthier mind and get more out of life – from how to deal with stress and anxiety, to boosting our mood or sleeping better. It will help you spot the signs of common mental health conditions, get personalised practical self-care tips and information on further support.

Future Pathways

Offers help and support to people who were abused or neglected as children while living in care in Scotland. 

Gamblers Anonymous

Support meetings offering fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other.

GamCare

National provider of free information, advice and support for anyone affected by problem gambling. 

Guide for Veterans

This Guide for Veterans contains resources that provide Mental Health, Housing and Financial support available to veterans / ex-servicemen. It also provides information about 'Jobs and Training for Veterans', 'Scholarships for Disabled Veterans', 'Help for Injured Veterans', 'Help for Blind Veterans' and 'Help for Carers of Injured Veterans'. Plus 'Information on Armed Forces Pensions'.

Health in Mind

A charity promoting positive mental health and wellbeing in Scotland. Provides a range of services and information to support people to make positive differences to their lives. These include: counselling and trauma counselling; befriending; guided self-help; support for people from minority ethnic communities; combating isolation; art therapy; outdoor conservation for greater wellbeing; suicide prevention; support with substance misuse.

 

healthtalk.org This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Information about health issues, by sharing people's real-life experiences. You can watch people sharing their stories about cancer, autism, motor-neurone disease, pregnancy, drugs, depression and much more. 

HorseBack UK

Using horsemanship and outdoor activities, deliver personal development programmes that encourage participants to acquire new coping strategies, life skills and build lasting resilience. Participants include service personnel and veterans suffering from life-changing injuries and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Schools Development Program aimed at school pupils with an emphasis on participation and personal development.

kindred

For parents of children with complex needs, provides practical information, advocacy, emotional support and guidance.

Legal Services Agency (L.S.A)This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

LSA aims to assist those disadvantaged by poverty, exclusion, disability, ethnicity or social isolation etc. who suffer injustice.

Linlithgow Link 

Provide support through social and community activity to those who are isolated by illness, age, or infirmity. E.g. volunteers supply car service to hospitals, befriend housebound people and young mothers, provide social activities for the frail elderly and assisting in running the local monthly Caring Café for those affected by Dementia.

Live Well - NHS

Advice, tips and tools to help you make the best choices about your health and wellbeing.

Maggie's

A charity providing free cancer support and information in centres across the UK and online. Help to manage emotional, social and practical issues, symptons and side effects. 

Mind: for better mental health 

Provides advice and support including Infoline which offers confidential help and Legal Line which provides information on mental health related to law. Campaigns to improve services, raise awareness and promote understanding.

Money and Mental Health Policy Institute 

Independent charity, committed to breaking the link between financial difficulty and mental health problems. Conduct research, develop practical policy solutions and work in partnership with both those providing services and those using them to find what really works. Highlights where help can be found for mental health, money and support during Covid-19 outbreak.

National Association for Premenstrual SyndromeThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Provides help, information and support to PMS sufferers, also to partners of sufferers.

National Self Harm Network NSHNThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Supports survivors and people who self harm and the people it affects e.g. family and friends. Provides information, contacts and raises awareness of needs.

National Wellbeing Hub

Created to provide advice and information to support the emotional and psychological wellbeing of people working in Health and Social Care.

NHS (National Health Service)

Provides information about health and well being, health services, support and social services provided by the National Health Service for the general public in England. 

NHS England: Help with Health Costs 

Information on Prescriptions, Dental treatment, Sight tests, Glasses, Travel to Hospital, wigs and fabric supports etc. in England and how to get help with costs / claim.

NHS inform This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

New national health information service providing a co-ordinated approach and a single source of quality assured health information for the public in Scotland

NHS Prescription Services

Can provide information on help with health costs. Previously known as the Prescription Pricing Division

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Action

Provides information and support, promoting recovery from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Related disorders that share the 'Obsessive' element of OCD include: Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD), Compulsive Skin Picking (CSP), Trichotillomania (TTM) 

Overeaters Anonymous This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Organisation offers help to people with overeating problems. Helpline available.

Partners in Advocacy

Provide independent advocacy for individuals living in Scotland with learning disabilities, autistic spectrum disorders, physical disabilities and people over 65. Also provide independent advocacy to children and young people who are living with mental health issues, additional support needs and learning disabilities.

Patients Association This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Independent charity which provides advice, the latest health news, signposting to further information and general advice. Also has a range of booklets and guides for patients.

Penumbra

Provides support across Scotland for adults and young people towards mental wellbeing.

Royal College of Psychiatrists

Provides information on mental conditions and illness including: self-harm; seasonal affective disorder; depression; bi-polar etc

S.M.I.L.E Counselling

Aim to help young people who are struggling with how they feel, are having problems with family or school, anxiety, depression, anger or just need to talk to someone, but find it difficult to talk to those closest to them. Website includes apps and videos covering a range of topics

Samaritans - The  

Offer a safe place for you to talk any time you like, in your own way – about whatever’s getting to you. You don’t have to be suicidal.

Scottish Association for Mental Health This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Provides help, information and support plus campaigns on behalf of people with mental health problems

Scottish Delirium Association 

provides guidelines and patient information plus a forum for discussion and sharing of best practice. 

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Scottish Hazards

A registered charity whose aim is to reduce injury, ill health and death caused by work/workplaces in Scotland. They provide free and confidential information, advice, support and training to (mainly non-unioinsed) individual employees and groups of employees. A COVID-19 helpline 0800 0015 022 is available for anyone concerned about Covid 19 risks at work including returning to work after, or working through, this global pandemic and needing advice on risk assessment, social distancing, work hygiene and all COVID 19 health and safety concerns.

Scottish Learning Disabilities Observatory

Set up to provide better information about the health and health care of people with learning disabilities and people with autism in Scotland.

Scottish Women’s Aid 

Women’s Aid network that provides information and support for women, children and young people who have experienced domestic abuse across Scotland. This includes Scotland’s 24 hour Domestic Abuse and Forced Marriage Helpline on 0800 027 1234.

Support in Mind Scotland This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

Information, advice and support for those affected people affected by serious mental illness. This includes those who are family members, carers and supporters. Support in Mind Scotland - new operational name for National Schizophrenia Fellowship (Scotland)

The Big ShoutER Project

Aims to actively involve young people in decisions affecting them in the delivery of the youth health service in East Renfrewshire. Linked to resources about health, poverty, education, environment etc.

The Bridge

The Bridge Community Project located in Livingston seeks to improve the everyday wellbeing of the people of West Lothian by providing practical and relational suppor, including: Counselling Services, Financial Wellbeing and Stepping Stones to Wellbeing - exploring and learning about topics such as: mental wellbeing; the impact of bereavement and loss; practical skills for life.

The Mix: help and support for under 25s

Provides information, help and support for people under 25: everything from homelessness to finding a job, from money to mental health, from break-ups to drugs.

Tommy's

The team of Tommy's midwifes provide a pregnancy information service and support line for parents and families who lose a baby, experience premature birth and to help everyone have a safe and healthy pregnancy.

United Christian Broadcasting (UCB) Prayerline 

Telephone team that will pray with you and for you. or you can submit your prayer request by filling in an online form. 

We are with you in Scotland

 Support people who have issues with drugs, alcohol and mental health, and their families and friends. Offer free, confidential without judgement.

Well Being Scotland 

Offers a diverse range of support services in recognition of the wide range of experiences which may have had a negative impact on an individual or their family in different ways, at different stages of their lives. Client centred, holistic, trauma informed therapeutic services and specialism in abuse and trauma work.

West Space

Provides information about local mental health and wellbeing services and support in West Lothian, connecting people to local activities and places, resources to support self-help and self-management.

Young Minds This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Promotes mental health of children and young people. Helpline for young people and parents.