Electricity company and rural health partnership team up to boost resilience and wellbeing in north of Scotland
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An electricity company and a rural health organisation have teamed up in a bid to boost the resilience and wellbeing of communities in the north of Scotland.
The tie-up between SSEN Distribution and the Scottish Rural Health Partnership (SRHP) will lead to information being shared on topics such as personal and community resilience planning and mental health. It will also seek to raise awareness of the free help and support available from SSEN’s Priority Services Register (PSR), making the most of SRHP’s network of contacts in the public, private and charity sectors.
SSEN Distribution has three regional customer relationship managers whose role includes liaising with communities and emergency services to bolster resilience during emergency events such as storms.
Customer relationship managers also work across the north of Scotland to raise awareness of the PSR, which offers free help and support to those who need it most during a power cut.
Leigh Mair, SRHP’s development manager, said: “The Scottish Rural Health Partnership, which is hosted by the University of Highlands and Islands, aims to be a leading authority and source of knowledge on remote, rural and island population health and social care in Scotland.
"The SRHP is committed to working towards the reduction of rural health and social care inequalities, including mental health.
"We recognised that SSEN has a strong history of working with communities in Scotland and that it is always looking for new ways to support its customers in remote and rural areas, such as with the Priority Services Register.
"We are delighted to announce this partnership between the SRHP and SSEN and are very much looking forward to working together in the future to help enable community resilience within Scotland.”
Professor Sandra MacRury, academic lead for the SRHP in the University of the Highlands and Islands, said: “This is a great example of the SRHP’s role in collaborative partnerships and facilitating links between organisations and businesses in the rural sector.
"SSEN has an excellent track record in this field and SRHP is very pleased to be working in partnership on a project which has great potential in addressing the needs of our rural communities.”
The partnership will see SSEN’s customer relationship managers holding online knowledge-sharing sessions with SRHP contacts. Once regulations allow and it is safe to do so, SSEN and SRHP will also host "in-person" events in Inverness, Elgin, Shetland, Orkney, Stornoway, Perth and Campbeltown.
Pamela Harvey, customer relationship manager for SSEN’s Highlands and Islands region, said: “This is an exciting opportunity, and something we are looking forward to developing further.
"When we were approached by the Scottish Rural Health Partnership, we knew straight away it was a positive step as it would open up an additional avenue for us to reach out to customers who may not be aware of our Priority Services Register, or who may not know who to call on the rare occasions the power goes off.
“Over the years we’ve developed great links with community groups and emergency planning teams across our regions, and now we’re partnering with SRHP this will expand our list of contacts, helping us to support our customers even more.”
