User Involvement               Services for Carers                Counselling/Information        Community Support          Policy & Campaigns

History of MHA

One of the first Mental Health Associations, MHA was founded in 1950 as Aberdeen and North East Association for Mental Health.

Its goals, then as now, were to provide support services for people with mental ill health and educate the public about mental health issues.

The services were pioneering, and we were providing Community Care before the term was in common use:

• our first Day Centre was opened 50 years ago
• our first residential project, a group home for discharged psychiatric patients, was opened more than 35 years ago
• our Counselling and Information Service is 25 years old, and was the first of its kind in Scotland
  

But attitudes and needs change over time, and the nature of our services has evolved and changed radically over the years.

There is a long history of involving service users in the management of projects, and a Mental Health Advocacy service was piloted within the organisation before becoming independent. Other key themes throughout MHA’s history are the recruitment and training of volunteers, and co-operation with other organisations to achieve common goals.

The organisation has arranged a number of conferences with eminent speakers, and took the lead in holding events during Mental Health Week in Aberdeen for 17 years, from 1977-1994. We have also sought to influence policy at both local and national levels. Twenty-two years ago MHA was the first voluntary organisation in Grampian to be invited to join a local joint planning group for mental health services, and we continue to provide representatives on such groups. We also submit evidence in response to both local and national consultation on mental health and related issues.