Scotland Urged to Open Up on Mental Health Following Oil Price Crash

Scotland Urged to Open Up on Mental Health Following Oil Price Crash
VSA and SAMH have teamed up to launch the 'Open Up' campaign, encouraging everyone in the north-east to open up about mental health following the effects of the oil price crash.

North East Scotland social care charity, VSA, and the Scottish Association for Mental Health (SAMH) have teamed up to launch the ‘Open Up’ campaign, encouraging everyone in the north-east to open up about mental health following the effects of the oil market downturn.

 

 

The oil price crash has led to a 50 percent rise in unemployment in the area and has affected local people across all ages and sectors, VSA said in an organization statement.

“This has led to more people needing help for poor mental health, which when combined with a cultural struggle with stigma, means that encouraging conversation has never been so important,” a VSA representative said on the charity’s website.

SAMH research from 2016 shows that 98 percent of people in North East Scotland think mental health is as, or more, important than physical health; yet almost a fifth (18 percent) never take time to look after it.

VSA and SAMH have urged people to find the right support, information and resources relevant to them by visiting vsa.org.uk and/or SAMH.org.uk.

SAMH has also been speaking to politicians about mental health issues at the Scottish National Party’s 2017 spring conference, which was held in Aberdeen from March 17-18.

 

 

During the event, SAMH said it discussed fighting mental health support program cutbacks with the SNP MP for Ayr, Carrick & Cumnock, Corri Wilson.

In July last year, Robert Gordon University Senior Lecturer in Mental Health and Wellbeing, Dr Steve Smith, revealed that the oil and gas industry was responding to a rise in mental health awareness.

“The economic uncertainty has resulted in a rise in stress related problems, causing issues for organizations as they come to realize that the mental health of their workforce is a major asset to be protected,” Smith told Rigzone at the time.

In a Rigzone poll carried out on Twitter last year, the majority of voters that took part said that they were unhappy with their current oil and gas employment.


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