Lottery cash for suicide support

Lottery cash for suicide support
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Mary Rodgers and office manager Margaret Leiper
Mary Rodgers (left) feels people often find it difficult to discuss suicide

A Dundee-based charity that helps those struggling to cope after the suicide of a friend or family member is to expand after receiving lottery cash.

Insight Counselling has been awarded £272,183 over five years to employ a counsellor and a community worker.

As well as taking on the two new part-time workers, the grant will also allow them to expand into Perth.

The charity currently works in Dundee, Forfar, Arbroath , Montrose and Brechin and does outreach work in schools.

'Guilt and shame'

The charity already has 35 trained volunteer counsellors, two paid workers and reception staff.

Dundee Samaritans has also committed 10 volunteers to help in the project.

Project manager Mary Rodgers said: "Suicide bereavement is a specialist area as those who are affected often have feelings of guilt and shame, and can become prisoners to hindsight when they think of all the 'if onlys' connected to the death.

"They can also become isolated because they don't want to speak about it and their friends and family don't want to speak about it either.

"It's not often realised that people bereaved by suicide are more at risk of committing suicide themselves.

"Our new service will undertake to offer one-to-one counselling, provide a listening service and our goal is to set up lots of small self-help groups in communities.

"The self-help groups are important because we are living in a society where the concept of community is becoming quite fragmented."