I’m in private housing and am lucky that it’s reasonably priced compared to other properties in the town I live in, but is still £675 a month for a 2 bed for me and my son. I’m also lucky to have a really nice landlady who doesn’t put rent up too much and covers all repairs etc.

I do always have anxiety that if she decided to sell, I wouldn’t be able to afford anywhere else. There are very few 2 bed council properties around here.

I would like the sense of security that comes with social housing but love where we are at the minute and my son is very attached to it (and has anxiety so I wouldn’t want to move him.)

My universal credit basically covers my rent and council tax but nothing else.

Last year my landlord needed to move back to his property and it was difficult to find another house for the size of my family. As if that was not enough, the costs had doubled from pandemic times. It was not affordable. As a family, we had to resort to social housing as opposed to the private house that we were in. We are now in temporary accommodation awaiting a house to be allocated. It does not help much because temporary furnished flats are even more expensive. It is unbearable. I cannot talk about coping because we are not.

Hello, everyone. The question of the week. How are you managing housing cause super difficulty? Super is struggling because the bills have increased a lot. The food is incredible. You go to a supermarket that and the cost of the food is this massive quite worried? You know quite worried? No, super worried about what we can do.

Because, most of my income is going on food and pay the bills and an emergency or any repairing the house, or if I need to replace any furniture or anything. I can't afford. It is super worried because I don't know how I can.

Thinking in the future, how can be in the future? I'm, I try to do my best. I try to not spend too much and things, we don't need it because of the life is incredible. And my son is little his grow up. I need to buy some things for him. The uniforms, the things affecting a lot.

I manage at the moment as I pay a small mortgage but this will end in 2027.

The hidden costs are I have to repair and maintain everything myself and pay lots of extra insurances to cover building and contents.

I am looking to downsize and move to a cheaper town/ city as I will no longer be able to afford anything in the city I live in.

I am hoping to buy outright so I don't have housing costs other than repairs etc.

Life in Scotland hasn’t really been easy especially being relatively new. I suffered unemployment for over a year and I lived on food bank and support from church. I couldn’t pay my bills at some point despite been a graduate. I later moved to Glasgow from Aberdeen. And I believe with me volunteering currently now that my experience would improve my employability chances in the future.

As a parent and full-time carer to a neurodivergent child, getting mental health support has felt like climbing a mountain with no path. I’m expected to carry so much—advocating, caring, surviving—and yet when I ask for help for my mental wellbeing, the system seems surprised I even need it.

Add to that being from an ethnic minority background, and it gets even harder. Cultural stigma, language barriers, and a lack of representation in services make it feel like these spaces weren’t built for people like me. I’ve often felt unseen, or worse—judged.

What I need is to be treated as a whole person, not just a role. A carer, yes. A mother, yes. But also someone with feelings, limits, and a right to care too.

I believe that if I needed help with my mental health, I would seek out a GP appointment. Having volunteered as a family support worker in previous years, I guess I have a good knowledge of family support services out there that might be available to me, so consider myself in a better position to find help and support than had this not been the case.

Hello everyone getting mental health support in my area is not that easy I’m still struggling with mental health support

I live in Norfolk. Two years ago, the world as I knew it fell completely apart, and after months of intense stress I had a mental breakdown. I found getting help very difficult and slow. The mental health nurse at my GP saw me fairly regularly for a few weeks. She was very concerned because I had a well developed and thought out 'plan' that I had purchased supplies for. I was prescribed antidepressants which I still take now. She referred me for an assessment at my local crisis team. They refused to take me on because I was clean and well presented at my assessment and because we were statutorily homeless at the time (living in a refuge with my teen). I then tried to get help through my local Mind. Fell through the cracks. Took about 5 months to be seen. Very limited help when I was. Eventually got 12 CBT sessions through wellbeing service. That was the following spring. Essentially I have just been hobbling along on my own trying to cope as best I can 🤷🏽

The only mental health support I have been able to access for myself was anti-depressants, which my GP prescribed from a telephone appointment. I asked about receiving counselling and was told there was a wait list, I did not follow up on this and as a result didn’t receive the counselling. I am off anti-depressants thankfully, but I have been struggling with anxiety lately. Rather than contact the GP and probably be told there is a waiting list I have gone private through Better Health and funded it myself. I would rather make financial sacrifices, in order to help my mental health than wait for the NHS.

The problem with mental health support is that if you have to wait, your mental health suffers, which then impacts everything else. My son has recently suffered significant bereavements, my mum died in December 2022 and then his dad died in October 2023. I contacted his GP about getting support and was told they could only put in a referral for CAMHS, which again has a wait list, my son does not meet the criteria for CAMHS so that route was not available to us. My son’s paediatrician put in a referral to a charity called Winstons Wish, which helps children through close bereavements. The referral took 11 months before they were able to offer my son counselling, when I spoke with the counsellor it was decided that it was not appropriate for my son. My son is autistic and the counsellor said that their therapeutic model involved discussing the funeral and explaining the finality of death, I agreed this would cause more distress to my son.

My son and I have a faith in an afterlife, we do not prescribe to a particular religion and the counsellor said that they like to explain to the child that death is final, this does not align with mine and my son’s beliefs. I have explored private counselling options for my son, but he has said that he does not feel ready and is happier discussing his grief with me. I love my son dearly, and have supported and tried to help him any way I can through his grief, this has had an impact on my own mental health, which is why I am paying for private counselling for myself. If my son needed counselling now or in the future I would make financial sacrifices and pay privately.

I feel mental health treatment is not prioritised enough and the only thing that GPs offer to adults is anti-depressants and other medication. I feel the only time any mental health intervention is offered on the NHS, is if it reaches crisis point and there is a risk of serious harm to the individual or other people. I feel non-crisis mental health support is only available if you are willing to pay for it, which is not an option for many people.

Hello everyone I was told in my son school I can get support from community hubs and also having coffee ☕️ morning with other parents coming together to talk and share different ideas.

I visited to my health care practitioner for my mental health issues such as stress for several times. My GP prescribed Duloxetine, Codeine for my stress. This same medication also prescribed for my ongoing pain and health conditions. So, the medication became double and made me more stressful and don't know what to do and where to go.