A DAY-LONG event calling for improved mental health facilities is taking place in Dunbar.

Members of the public are invited to the town’s Bleachingfield Centre on Thursday (February 6) to discuss what can be done to improve mental health provision in the town.

The event has been set up by mum-of-two Alex McLean, who has grown tired of the lack of mental health facilities in the town.

She said: “I needed help myself.

“I have suffered from anxiety for eight years now and just feel like you are alone with anxiety or mental health in the town.

“We did have CrossReach, which was great and I used that but it was taken away.

“I feel, personally, so many people suffer with mental health and now is the time we need it.

“I know there are people a lot worse than I am and I had to do something.”

Miss McLean was keen to raise awareness and “break the stigma” surrounding mental health through the event, which will look at adult mental health.

Initially, she highlighted the issue on social media and found the positive response to the idea of improving facilities “overwhelming”.

Information on current services will be offer at the venue, on Countess Crescent, between 9am and 6pm, along with confidential questionnaires asking people what mental health facilities they would like to see created in the town.

Miss McLean, who is studying computing and IT through the Open University, said: “I would just like to see mental health facilities that would help all adults in Dunbar – not just group therapies but one-to-one, stress and anxiety workshops.

“It would be nice to see people happy again and not just posting on social media about their struggles with mental health.

“There is still a massive stigma.

“I know that myself: I never used to talk about it.

“I was embarrassed that I felt I could not go out and meet a friend for a coffee because I was too scared in case I got an anxiety attack.

“I don’t mind talking about it and I am a lot better now but there is still a massive stigma.”

The 29-year-old planned to be at the Bleachingfield Centre from 9am through to 1pm on the day, with members of the public invited to go along and speak to people about what they would like to see introduced in Dunbar.

Also planning to attend the event is Sevy Lemoine-McGinnes, whose daughter, Niamh Lemoine-Drever, took her own life this month.

Sevy, who lives in Dunbar, stressed that a number of mental health charities and groups did a great job but they were stretched financially and through the number of personnel available.

She said: “If you can cure or help young people with their mental health that means that they do not need an adult service because they have got better in their youth.

“That takes the pressure off of the adult services.”