A Perth woman who once felt so low she attempted suicide has organised a Time to Talk Day event in a Fair City coffee house.
This Thursday, February 3 is the day designated for the nation’s biggest annual mental health conversation event.
For Time to Talk Day friends, families, communities, and workplaces are encouraged to come together to talk, listen and change lives.
And at Blend on the Old High Street in Perth, the door is open for frank conversations and a good natured blether.
After her own breakdown in 2017, brought on by her marriage ending, losing her job and the death of her mum all within three months, Linda Fisken (55) who suffers from a borderline personality disorder, anxiety and depression, took an overdose, trying to take her own life.
In the weeks that followed, Linda found reasons to live and improve her outlook.
She’s not got formal training but she has offered her lived experience to inspire and counsel others.
In 2019 Linda set up Linda’s Ladies, a Perthshire mental health group on social media which has been a godsend to women feeling they are battling a personal crisis.
Linda’s Ladies has kept kindly and understanding conversations going through the very difficult days of the pandemic in Perthshire.
Linda’s shown extraordinary altruism in defiance of her rock bottom bump.
She successfully applied to be one of only a dozen people on a suicide lived experience panel sharing their stories. Her two-year tenure with this lasts until September.
She has piloted a bereavement support scheme for families who have been bereaved through suicide and her input was instrumental in starting United to Prevent Suicide’s campaign.
These days she is deeply involved in the NSP (National Suicide Prevention)Leadership Group.
The NSPLG’s awareness efforts have been recognised by The World Health Organisation (WHO).
Last month she took part in a video with the group SAMH that is being used on the NHS website ‘Stories of Hope’ to highlight the issues.
Her event this week - Blether n' Blend - is supported by Blend Management and the Co-op’s Perth South store.
Everybody’s welcome and visitors, not just ladies, can come between 10am and 4pm and get free coffee and enjoy a chat with others.
“I’m trying to get people to come out and meet again after COVID,” she explained.
“Everyone is understandably reluctant to come out, but Time To Talk Day is a really valuable opportunity.
“Loneliness and isolation is a huge problem and if its happening to you, your worries just get bigger in that closed-off place.
“You might not realise you need others - until things get really bad.
“So why not come along to Blend and give this drop-in event a try? The staff are lovely and the coffee’s free.”
