We are delighted to share that the Scottish Veterans Fund has awarded a fantastic grant of £25,000 towards the new Mental Health Support Worker post at Erskine’s Transitional Supported Accommodation (ETSA).

Erskine would like to sincerely thank the Fund and Veterans Scotland for this incredibly generous grant and for regularly supporting our range of services for Veterans since 2009.

ETSA opened last year in our Veterans Village in Bishopton to provide vital support to Service leavers and working-age Veterans whose life or transition plans have been disrupted. We offer 24 new single-living apartments and long-term support plans for each Veteran to give them a mutual support base in which to reflect, re-orientate and retrain before relocating to the region and employment of their choice.

Our new Mental Health Support Worker has now been recruited and will allow us to further develop this valuable project. This role will provide on-site expertise in mental health support, ensuring ETSA can accommodate a greater number of Veterans living with significant mental health needs and also offer even better support to our existing tenants. The Mental Health Support Worker will be the first point of contact for our Veterans facing distressing situations. They will deliver immediate crisis prevention when necessary, provide expert mental health assessments and design bespoke support and welfare plans for each tenant.

Erskine’s Chief Executive, Ian Cumming: “I would like to personally thank the Scottish Veterans Fund and Veterans Scotland for this outstanding donation in support of Erskine’s Veterans. Our team at ETSA has already seen several Veterans move on to secure permanent employment and long-term accommodation – it has been immensely rewarding to know Erskine was instrumental in this success. Our new Mental Health Support Worker post will ensure this project can reach more working-age Veterans who face significant mental health challenges and are in need of Erskine’s expert support and modern accommodation. Our charity is hugely proud to help Scotland’s Veterans and we will continue to do so with the generosity of long-term supporters like the SVF.”

 To find out more about the work of Veterans Scotland and support provided to the Veteran community across Scotland, please visit www.veteransscotland.co.uk.

To find out more about Erskine’s work please visit our website at www.erskine.org.uk, follow on twitter@Erskine Charity via Facebook www.facebook.com/ErskineVeteransCharity or listen to Erskine Veterans Radio at Erskine.org.uk/radio or Paisley 107.5 FM