HELENSBURGH’S community mental health hub is to host an open day this week to give people in the town a chance to find out more about its work.

The open day at Jean’s Bothy, on the corner of South King Street and East King Street, will run from 11am until 3pm on Friday, October 11.

The project is a partnership between the Argyll and Bute health and social care partnership (HSCP), Enable Scotland, the Ministry of Defence, Helensburgh Community Council (HCC) and Argyll and Bute’s Third Sector Interface (TSI).

Giving a presentation on the hub’s work to HCC members last week, development manager Katrina Sayer said: “We are steadily increasing our membership, both of the bothy itself and of the steering group which runs it.

“Membership is basically open to anyone who wants support to improve their mental health. We have some referrals from other agencies, but we have a number of self-referrals too.

READ MORE: Helensburgh recovery cafe Welcome In celebrates third anniversary

“A small number of referrals comes from GPs – I’d like to increase that, not necessarily as an alternative to medication, but I’d like to see engagement with the hub alongside traditional medication.

“We have 98 members at the moment, though not all come along regularly – some come for a specific activity, others visit us almost every day.

“We’ve had discussions about opening the hub up to the general public, but members feel very strongly that it’s a safe space for them – we have a members’ meeting once a month and they always highlight the importance of confidentiality within the space."

Katrina also said there has been an excellent response to the hub’s appeal, publicised in the Advertiser last month, for donations of unwanted tools to help the hub widen the scope of its activities by undertaking more hands-on tasks.

Donations have been flooding in to the Handyman’s Haunt in Charlotte Street, run by local firm M&T Builder’s Merchants, since the initiative was launched at the end of August.

READ MORE: Old tools wanted for Helensburgh's mental health project

Katrina said: “The response has been great. We have an ‘upcycling group’ that meets every Tuesday and was keen to make use of more tools, and we’ve been inundated since M&T’s kindly agreed to take the donation box the group built themselves – I’ve no idea what some of the equipment is!”

Find out more at the ‘Jean’s Bothy, Helensburgh’ page on Facebook or by following @BothyJeans on Twitter or @JeansBothy on Instagram.

For referrals or enquiries email jeansbothy@enable.org.uk, or you can call the hub on 01436 679218.