"Amazing support from a social care mental health service"

I attend a service ran by Falkirk Council called Caledonia Service which is for people experiencing mental health problems.

The staff team are extremely effective in their role and are always trying their best to do what suits the needs of each service user. I personally cannot thank the manager of the service enough for all she has done for me. She really sees the whole of me and not simply my diagnosis. It has been extremely beneficial to my mental health that she sees me holistically as my mental health is present with me always (as is everyone's) through everything I do in life and she focuses on that rather than fitting parts of my life into a set of symptoms.

I am on my way out of services after 25 years involvement and I would never have got to this stage if it weren't for the effective way that Caledonia Service runs and the professionalism of the staff team. The encouragement and support through the process of my exit from services has been consistent and safe to me and I have felt wholly secure throughout with their support.

In the current climate, of COVID 19, the service has found a very effective way of ensuring service users can still be supported through social media live interaction, video calls and telephone calls. I thought the lockdown was going to knock my mental health backwards without any input from my existing services but I feel Caledonia has got it a right as they can get it in the current crisis the world is going through. I take my hat off to them and thank them greatly for providing some sort of continuity to myself and others.