Mental Health Awareness Week – Midlothian Projects Making a Difference

The Dalkeith Petanque Club is free and open to everyone in the community, they aim to provide a welcoming and inclusive space to encourage people to get active, socialise, and connect over their favourite sport. Dalkeith Petanque Club were awarded a micro-grant of £1,000 to upgrade the area around the piste, ensuring it is accessible to anyone who wishes to play.

Sandy Howden from the Dalkeith Petanque Club writes,

“The biggest achievement by far which I am particularly proud of is when one of our members asked me if he could bring his son who has autism and ADHD. I said certainly. He came down and within months, took to the game and is now one of the brightest star players in Scotland. He has turned into a confident, bright young man with all the deserved attention he gets, especially from outside the club. He conducts himself brilliantly amongst adults at big competitions around the country.

I am also proud at how the petanque club has embedded itself into the community and through holding competitions, has repeatedly raised money for other local charity groups. The way the club works is you never play with the same player every session, this allows everybody to get to know each other. We now play in a league and members travel five times a year to clubs from Selkirk to Penicuik. There are 10 clubs in the league – we have a wonderful reputation of being one of the friendliest clubs!

I could write a book about this journey in building up the piste and club to being (in my opinion) one of the best clubs in Scotland. The public can play on this piste and they do very regularly, 365 days a year.”

The Pathhead Men’s Club offers a weekly café to help reduce social isolation and loneliness amongst older men in the community. Pathhead Men’s Club were awarded a micro-grant of £2,500 to deliver their weekly café and develop links with the wider community.

Neil Heydon-Dumbleton from the Pathhead Men’s Club writes,

“We held a ‘Grumpies’ café every Thursday for older men in the village which was well attended, fulfilling our core plans. We also arranged visits with varying numbers of older men to The National Gallery, The Lothian Bird Sanctuary, and a visit to Summerlea Industrial Museum along with two classes of P4 pupils from Tynewater Primary School. We worked with other village groups on a fundraiser café for local charities, and raised £350 for Marie Curie during our ‘Easter Eggstravaganza’. We worked with the youth project to a very well attended games night and a soup station for Halloween guisers. Both of these involved the men working with all different ages of villagers. The older men repainted the village phone box, which is used as a book exchange and we also held a Christmas lunch for our members.

We have up to 20 older men who regularly attend the café, and in various numbers, the day-trips and Christmas lunch. We reach several hundered village residents working with other groups on the pop-up cafes and supported the Summerlea Museum trip for 40 school children, which wouldn’t have happened without our involvement.

It can be argued that working with a wide range of groups in Pathhead through the Pathhead focus group allows us to impact the 2000 local residents. The ‘Grumpies’ café has become well known in the village and spawned the ‘3 Cafes project’ following similar models for other groups in the village. We are particularly proud of feedback from the families of men who sadly died this year. They indicate they were having a real positive impact on them all, ‘My man wasn’t much of a talker, but when he went to the Grumpies, I always felt he had a little more conversation in him.”.

The Warblers support people with breathing difficulties through group singing to improve confidence, connection, and wellbeing. They were awarded £4,615 for their group sessions in Dalkeith.

“We are delighted that a growing number of Warbler members have been confident enough to sing in public to showcase what the Warblers are about. Most have never performed or sung in public before and have gained a lot of confidence from so doing.

The 2025 evaluation revealed that respondents felt the Warblers had a high or significant benefit towards their mood, self-confidence, and mental health.

Members have reported a wide variety of benefits from attending the Warblers, the main one being help to manage their health better and reduce medical interventions. Additionally many members reported feeling more socially connected with others. One said in their evaluation, ‘Because of my breathing I never used to go out and see anyone. Now I’ve got the Warblers to look forward to and I can meet people the same as me.’.”

Cruse Scotland were awarded £4,740 to provide early emotional support to adults experiencing bereavement in Midlothian

“We were pleased with exceeding the target number of beneficiaries (20) and reaching 22 recently bereaved people in Midlothian. We are also pleased 18 participants agreed the support had significantly improved their health and wellbeing and reduced their feelings of loneliness and isolation.

The feedback we received from participants included:

‘After the first couple of sessions I felt like a weight was lifted from me. My volunteer was amazing, she made me realise how I was feeling was completely normal and helped me deal with the different emotions faced.‘

Case Study ‘Y’ contacted us after the death of her two siblings only a few months apart. She was finding it difficult to process the grief and felt it was damaging her health.

‘I was at breaking point and in a very dark place. My volunteer listened, showed no judgement, and was a breath of fresh air’.”

Mayfield & Easthouses Y2K were awarded £10,000 for their Thriving Transitions project that offers a safe, inclusive space for young adults to develop life skills that are required for a positive transition into greater independence.

“One of the key achievements we are most proud of is the consistent engagement of 56 young adults over the past year, many of whom faced barriers including social isolation, poor mental wellbeing, and limited confidence.

Through 52 weekly sessions, the project has provided a safe and supportive environment where young adults have been able to build trust, form positive relationships, and develop essential life skills. Participants who initially lacked confidence or were hesitant to engage have become more active within the group, contributing to discussions, trying new activities, and supporting their peers.

A particularly impactful aspect of the project has been the focus on relationship-based practice and consistency. By delivering weekly sessions with the same staff team, young adults have developed trusted relationships, which has supported open conversations around mental health, risk-taking behaviours, and personal challenges. We are also proud of our partnership approach, bringing in external organisations to deliver targeted inputs on safety and wellbeing. This has helped young adults gain practical knowledge and make more informed decisions in their daily lives.“

Edinburgh Community Yoga delivers trauma-informed yoga classes to support mental health & physical wellbeing. They were awarded £9,841 to deliver classes in Dalkeith.

“Our chair teacher is from the Dalkeith area, has CPTSD and is in recovery. Her lived experience allows the participants to feel seen and represented which makes a huge difference to how they feel in the space.”

Words from the participants demonstrate the impact the class has:

‘This class greatly improves my quality of life.‘

‘The class has been so beneficial to my health and wellbeing.‘

‘I am learning self care/acceptance – that wherever I am on the day is ok.’

Home Link Family Support supports families with young children. They were awarded £9,125 to run Adult Wellbeing Peer Support Groups (for parents who have children with additional support needs) in Midlothian. Project achievements include:

• Identifying and responding to a real needs of participants
• Developing a wellbeing toolkit to be used for future groups
• Developing a ‘tips sheet’ for parents navigating the ASN journey, aiming to promote lived experience and empower the group participants in contributing their voices.
• Facilitating the sharing of knowledge such as about schools and processes and rights to support.
• The reduction in isolation, and individuals knowing that there are others sharing similar experiences.
• Seeing parents build their confidence around the fact that it’s not that they are getting things wrong, but that it is simply hard.
• Parents starting to organise guest speakers to come to the group themselves, and some parents developing a real sense of ownership of how the group continues to develop in the future, with a desire to link with more people.
• Space to connect emotionally rather than it be simply about sharing information or training, this benefits wellbeing as it is empowering and not just about gaining knowledge.

“We are proud of both the therapeutic aspect and lived experience aspect that group facilitators have. We feel this enhances attunement, safety in the relationships, and group members respond really well to that. Its not only simple peer support or top down led, but has a tangible sense of collaboration.”