Blue Space Highland volunteers and the providers of water-based activities engaged by us are not professional therapists. They are simply a group of people who we believe have developed excellent self-management in respect of their physical and mental health.

We assess our volunteers and providers through their adoption of our values and mission, and their ability to show how they apply the NHS Five Steps to Wellbeing in their lives, coaching and mentoring. It’s that simple!

Blue Space Highland is not a therapy service, we advocate for self-management, a key aspect of that being involvement in water-based activities.

ASK ABOUT BLUE SPACE HIGHLAND

Referral starts with a link worker who you might access through a medical professional. A very good description of a link worker can be found here…

We have developed a close partnership with link workers in the Highlands to allow them to understand our services and to allow them to assess if this would be right for you. We would encourage you to ASK ABOUT BLUE SPACE HIGHLAND when in touch with medical professionals if you think we can help.

Your link worker will use our referral form to provide limited information to us about your mental health self-management and any issues or concerns you have about being able to look after yourself. We will not be the answer to everything but we will be aiming to teach you much more than just how to paddle!

WE WILL CONTACT YOU

When we have your details we will call or email you based on your wishes and discuss in more depth what you would like from Blue Space Highland. This will be based around the NHS Five Steps and will consider both benefits and risks. We will also ask you a few questions about your self-management currently and your feelings of wellness. This is necessary to support our research and to feedback to the link worker so that we can assess our service.

Once we have an idea of the best activity for you we will look at our schedule and may offer you a session with one of our paddle-sport providers. The session will be based on your needs and ability.

BLUE SPACE ACTIVITY

The fun part is your blue space activity session. As well as learning new skills, you will develop an understanding of mental health self-management through breath control, mindfulness, positive thinking, peer-support and gentle exercise.

After your session we will signpost you to further options for paddling activities with local clubs and provide you with trusted contacts who are committed to the same values as Blue Space Highland.

FOLLOW UP

After three months we will follow up with a call to discuss your self-management again and check in with you. We will hopefully see that you are engaging better with blue spaces for your general health and that you are finding opportunities to get involved.

We cannot offer repeat sessions unless a change of circumstances merits a different approach.