How Lochaber Hope is helping foster dreams in Highland town

Lack of opportunity and loneliness may be more acute in remote areas and support not as readily available or close by.

Alyson Smith received the Queen's Award last year for services to the community (Image: Newsquest)

"Between February 2017 and February 2018 we had 52 people walk through our front doors and tell us that they couldn't go on, that they were going to end their lives. One was nine years old," says Alyson, who launched Lochaber Hope in Fort William 18 years ago to help plug gaps in mental health support.

"We promised these people that we were going to do our best but we needed them to tell us what was needed, what was missing

"I'm happy to say that all those 52 people are still alive."

By coincidence, NHS Highland had 52 suicides registered in 2022, up from 49 deaths in 2021.

At council level, rates were higher than the Scottish average in Highland, Dundee, East Ayrshire and Perth and Kinross.

The charity's founder says the nine-year-old who came to their door had undiagnosed ADHD and Autism.

"He was playing up and he was naughty and his parents had split up," she says. "He came on his own and said, 'I don't want to live, it's too hard."

Lochaber Hope offers counselling, mentoring, employment training and a variety of peer-led support groups in the community, the main aim of which is to cultivate, "new dreams and aspirations".

There is also a woodwork studio and online shop and the charity took over Fort William's old job centre and turned it into a cafe, which is run by people with disabilities.

"I've seen a lot of people walking about with a broken psyche," says the founder, who was awarded the Queen's Medal last year for voluntary services.

Fort William has a higher than average rate of suicide, particularly amongst young men (Image: Gordon Terris)

"They feel as if there is nothing for them, a lack of opportunities and encouragement.

"They get to that black place where they don't believe they can come out of where they are.”

Over a period of 20 years, six young men who played shinty for Fort William’s team have died by suicide.

Musician and radio presenter Gary Innes was involved in a documentary about the death of six shinty players by suicide (Image: Newsquest)

Their deaths were the subject of a BBC Scotland radio documentary fronted by former musician and Take the Floor host Gary Innes, who is from Lochaber, played for the team himself and knew some of the players who died.

“It was part of the reason why we knew the group was needed,” says Alyson.

She says there is some "really good expertise" within the community for dealing with mental health and drug and alcohol addictions but it is not meeting local need.

"Everything is just so low-resourced," she said. "We've had to recognise that NHS can't be responsible for everything and as a community we've maybe got to take a bit more responsibility when we can."

READ MORE: Death of six shinty players from same Highland team prompts search for answers 

Her working background is in catering but the charity took root in the village of Duror, near Ballachulish where she launched a community project bringing some of the support that was available in Fort William to the village.

"We started off mentoring and helping people who were recovering from drug and alcohol issues, trying to get them into employment,” she says.

"In 2004 I had 72 people come through the project and got 49 into work. Twelve years later there were still 43 of those people in work so we knew we were doing something right."

She later trained as a counsellor, then started bringing other support workers into the project and into schools.

Lochaber Hope founder Alyson Smith with Stan Janssen, who was helped by the charity after becoming homeless (Image: Gordon Terris)

Lochaber Hope now has three bases in Fort William and people can be referred by their GP or link workers but most self-refer, she says.

The charity relies on the generosity of private funders and the public for donations and gets no statutory funding. 

She said: "I think what we do right is the way we speak to people, we meet them where they were at. There is no two strikes and you are out."

 READ MORE: 'Stags and moutains' image of Scottish Highlands masks area's social problems

Stan Janssen is known in Fort William as "the Dutch guy who works on the boats" and has made good friends in his adopted home.

But three years ago, things were very different. He arrived in the town destitute, with no job and no home.

A former sailor on tourist boat The Flying Dutchman, a move to the Isle of Rum came to an end after a messy relationship breakdown.

"In Lochaber, Fort William especially, it's very tight-knit," he says.

"If your last name is Malcolm or MacDonald you belong here, if your last name is Janssen they don't know you."

After he secured homeless accommodation he was put in touch with Alyson and was given counselling and a mentor.

"He did his job so well that I am now a volunteer mentor," says Mr Janssen.

 "There is a mental blow that comes with homelessness, I needed a therapist.

"There are a lot of foreign people in Fort William including Polish boys who are also having problems with addiction or mental health and just getting a foothold in Scotland.

"I can help these people by being a foreigner. I've made a nice circle of friends, I'm surrounded by good folk. I have a job and a good social life.

READ MORE: Family mourning death of fisherman from area of Scotland with second highest suicide rate

"What they really did - and I have to thank Aly for that - is building me up, showing me my worth. People value me.

"I'm not insecure anymore, I know who I am, I know what I want and that's a lot to happen in three years."

The National Rural Mental Health Forum was involved in a new, 2-year action plan that aims to reduce suicides in the Highlands.

Objectives include ensuring people in the region have consistent access to crisis support. The new Belford Hospital will include a room for emergency admissions, something that has been lacking in the existing hospital.

When Nicole Buchanan was 14 her granny took her own life and then last year the 27-year-old's father Ian also died by suicide.

She worked for Lochaber Hope at one point as a receptionist and has also received support from the charity.

Her father was born in Zambia and her mother is originally from Johannesburg and the family moved to the UK when she was two. They lived in Kinlochleven before moving to nearby Fort William.

Nicole Buchanan lost her father and grandmother to suicide (Image: Newsquest)

She says her father fought in wars in South Africa when he was a teenager which had a lasting impact on his mental health.

 "From as long as I can remember he was always a very angry man,” she says.

"He had always struggled, he went to the doctor and got a psychiatrist but said he couldn't deal with the flashbacks that happened afterwards so he stopped going."

"I loved my dad but he was a very difficult person to be around. 

"He had two failed attempts before his third one," she says and believes he would still be alive if services had "dug deeper" into the reasons for his mental health problems.

"I had to go private for counselling, there is no point even trying to go to the doctor. My sister has been on the waiting list for three years for counselling.”

She says drugs use remains a big problem in the town and believes it is a major contributor to suicide rates.

"It's probably the biggest reason why we have so many," she says.

"I had a friend who was on a comedown and decided to take his own life. There is no immediate help for anyone - I don't think it's good enough.

"Not long ago we had a young man in his twenties. There was a boy I went to school with and his girlfriend they were expecting a baby and he died.

"There is just not enough resources.

"I think Alison is a really wonderful person," she says. "You always feel listened to.

“I’ve watched the charity grow and she has created something really beautiful.”

Breathing Space: is Scotland's mental health helpline for individuals experiencing symptoms of low mood, depression, or anxiety, and offers free and confidential advice to anyone over the age of 18.  They can be contacted on 0800 83 85 87, 6pm to 2am Monday to Thursday; and from 6pm.

Samaritans - 116 123 (calls are free and do not show on a phone bill)

To make a donation to Lochaber Hope click here