The countdown is now on until local charity Mental Health Aberdeen (MHA) takes up residency at their new home in the city centre, as part of their plans to offer increased support to the people of the North-east.
MHA is moving from their current address at 1 Alford Place to new premises at Langstane House, on Union Street, and hopes to be operating from there by the end of October. The move is one of the most ambitious projects that the charity has undertaken during its seventy-year history and is primarily to address the ever increasing need to offer counselling and support to the local people.
MHA handles in excess of 9,000 information calls in a year and delivers around 20,000 face-to-face counselling appointments to children and adults. These numbers are expected to increase significantly in the months and years to come as a result of the additional challenges of Covid-19.
Work is now underway to transform the three floors of open plan office space into counselling rooms, waiting areas, and training facilities which are unlike anything MHA has had access to before. As well as offering counselling and support to people, MHA also organise in-house training courses for counsellors, and mental health first aid training, both of which will now take place in Langstane House. One floor of the building will be let to other local charities making the building a hub that will support the most vulnerable in the local community.
Graeme Kinghorn, chief executive of Mental Health Aberdeen said: “The move to MHA’s new home at Langstane House is designed not just to provide the local community with an accessible, safe, confidential and comfortable environment from which to receive support, but also to bring the narrative around Mental Health to a central location where it cannot be ignored. The refurbishment of a historically important building on Union Street is an additional bonus that is directly aligned with current initiatives and deserves the wholehearted support of all local people, businesses and organisations.”
For more information on the ‘MHA on the Move’ campaign contact fundraiser@mhaberdeen.org.uk