‘Bee Well’ café launch encourages Moray connections for September suicide prevention week
On Monday 6th September, as part of Suicide Prevention Week, Moray Wellbeing Hub CIC (MWH) are launching a monthly ‘Bee Well’ drop-in session open to anyone interested in a chat and cuppa with their Champions. Held at Calum’s Kitchen in Moray Sports Centre Elgin, these sessions aim to provide a safe space for the community of Moray to meet up for connection, sharing and wellbeing support.
With the space kindly donated by proprietor Calum Main, the monthly sessions will continue the first Monday of each month 9:30am -11:30am. Tea, coffee and a variety of snacks and cakes can be purchased from Calum’s Kitchen if visitors wish but with no obligation to do so.
As well as tackling isolation and stigma associated with mental health challenges, the sessions will explore themed conversation topics such as – what could be improved around suicide prevention in Moray? – the key points of which can be shared with local decision makers to create change.
MWH have been trialling these sessions over the summer as part of their project work around tackling isolation linked to COVID. The feedback from the trial sessions has been very positive:
“It was so good to sit and chat. I realised how much I had missed this.”
“Such a friendly atmosphere. Chris made me feel very welcome. I’m going to bring my neighbour along next time”
“Thank you! I really enjoyed my coffee and there was a nice buzz. Very welcoming.”
MWH are just one of the local mental health partners to be delivering activity this Suicide Prevention week as members of the Moray Making Recovery Real partnership, which includes Health & Social Care Moray and many other local organisations. National charity SAMH are also running free events in the Northeast such as an online event for local workplaces, and national campaign United To Prevent Suicide will be busy online.
For those keen to have their views and ideas on how we can prevent suicide in Moray an online survey is being promoted to gather ideas. Information on this can be found by contacting Moray Wellbeing Hub, or visiting their website news section at www.moraywellbeinghub.org.uk
If you are concerned about your own challenging thoughts or want to be prepared to support someone you care about, a local app is available to support with all the links including how to create a safe plan. This can be downloaded from www.preventsuicideapp.com
