A Scottish mental health charity is celebrating its 10th anniversary after a decade of pioneering work in the Highlands.
Birchwood charity is marking the milestone of its 23-bed recovery centre in Inverness, which is the only facility of its type in Scotland.
The centre was transformed in March 2008 from a traditional residential care home into a modern recovery centre for individuals suffering with mental health.
Emily Stokes, chief executive of Birchwood Highland, said: “When we first adopted the recovery model in 2006 throughout all of our services, we knew the former Birchwood House would need significant modernisation.
“This was to create more flats than single rooms to prepare people for moving on in the future to their own homes, rather than viewing the recovery centre as a ‘home for life’ as care homes were traditionally regarded.
“We strongly believed back in the benefits of the mental health recovery model, where the focus is on an individual’s whole life and what they can achieve and the quality of their life, not just on their illness and the barriers that this can create for individuals.
“We remain, to this day, pioneers of mental health recovery in the Highlands.
“I’m extremely proud to have seen the recovery centre progress into such a wonderful facility, consistently receiving excellent grades from the Care Inspectorate, our regulatory body, and it’s good to see so many people moving successfully on to their own homes over the years.”
To celebrate the anniversary, residents have been working alongside local music maestro Steve Robertson to produce a charity single through the Music is Life Scotland project.
“The Long Winding Road (Through the Seasons)” was created from concepts suggested by residents, including the idea of writing about how the changing seasons made them feel.
It will be released on Friday on iTunes, Amazon and Spotify.
Further celebrations are due to take place at the centre including a birthday party on Wednesday, as well as the planting of 10 apple trees to mark each year of the centre’s existence.
Annabel Mowat, deputy chief executive and service manager at the centre, added: “We work hard to consistently embrace mental health recovery and continually develop our understanding of this.”