Ending stigma
A BUSINESS-backed drive to improve mental well-being at work was in the spotlight in the Scottish Parliament last night.
More than 20 businesses and organisations, including PwC, Barclays, Businesses in the Community Scotland, SAMH and Samaritans Scotland have put their weight behind This Is Me Scotland. It aims to change perceptions of mental health by encouraging businesses to follow guidelines aimed at nurturing discussion and support.
Standard Life Aberdeen, Edrington and Prudential have signed up the campaign since its launch in October. Scottish health minister Clare Haughey said: “I welcome this action being taken by This Me Scotland to reduce the stigma and discrimination which can be associated with mental health in the workplace. Across Scotland we are determined to ensure people can get the right help at the right time.”
Go the distance
THE early days of Edinburgh tech firm Brainnwave were based on a long-distance relationship.
Co-founder and technology chief Graham Jones was residing in Australia when he got the call from social entrepreneur Steve Coates to get involved in the venture.
Mr Coates recalled: “The first investment call we had to get the first round of money in, it was the middle of the night for him (Mr Jones) at a ski resort in Melbourne!
“It was the most bizarre start. He has since moved over, and we are based in Edinburgh now.”
High-flyer
THE sky would seem to be limit for Richard Blanski, an associate at Shepherd Chartered Surveyors.
When he is not at his desk or behind the theodolite, Mr Blanski is a member of Glenrothes Aeromodelling Club and a civilian instructor at 859 Dalgety Bay Squadron, where he teaches cadets to fly radio control model aircraft. He also teaches how to build and maintain the aircraft, and is a flying instructor with the ATC regional RC training team. We suspect surveying does not provide the same adrenaline rush.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here