Health and wellbeing

A Perthshire farm manager is preparing to undertake an extraordinary 5,000-mile expedition from the rugged terrain of Highland Scotland to the vast expanse of the Sahara Desert to raise funds for agricultural charity, RSABI and Eden Valley Hospice.

How do you think research about mental health and wellbeing in rural areas should be done? What should the priorities be? How should communities be involved in this process? And what would make it feel fair, meaningful and relevant? 

First Minister John Swinney has announced a £5 million package for Scotland’s island communities. 

The funding package will support Island communities to tackle local issues and invest in new opportunities that will help deliver a more prosperous future. This funding reflects the First Minister’s four priorities of eradicating child poverty, growing Scotland’s economy, investing in green energy and infrastructure and improving public services. 

The Touring Network are hosting a series of events connecting professional touring performers and producers with community venues. They’ll be chatting through the highs and lows of making, promoting and presenting live performances, in and for geographically remote parts of Scotland.

Farmers attending NSA Scotsheep at the start of next month are being offered the opportunity to benefit from a post-lambing “MOT”, courtesy of Scottish agricultural charity, RSABI. 

RSABI’s Health Hut will be set up at the event on June 5th at Aikengall Farm, near Dunbar, offering attendees the opportunity to have a health check and haircut. 

Change Mental Health (CMH) has free funded mental health training places for rural individuals and rural small businesses.

The Rural Connections training aims to support businesses to implement and strengthen workplace wellbeing policies and activities.

CMH are working in partnership with Mental Health UK and Neptune Energy to deliver the Rural Connections project.

The Neighbourhood Ecosystem Fund launched today (Wednesday 22^nd May 2023) to enable community-led project groups in Scotland to design and deliver local nature restoration projects.

The aim of the Neighbourhood Ecosystem Fund is to help communities develop their ideas for nature restoration into a pipeline of deliverable projects with a whole ecosystem approach.