The HandsOnScotland website is one year old on 6 June 2008. Over the past year there have been over 20,000 visitors to the site.
The website was commissioned by the Scottish Government through Heads up Scotland and was developed by Playfield Institute (NHS Fife) in partnership with Barnardo's and the University of Dundee. It was developed to help frontline workers, such as teachers, nurses, social workers, and foster carers, to improve the mental health of children and young people.
It is a one-stop shop for practical information and techniques on how to respond helpfully to children and young people's troubling behaviour, build up their self-esteem and promote their positive mental wellbeing.
The website contains 48 topics within 14 sections that cover a wide range of mental health issues ranging from abuse to sleeping difficulties. There are also 25 sets of videos from specialists giving tips and advice. The site is continually evolving: each section has a feedback form, and comments from these forms have resulted in the website team adding or changing information and advice.
A post-launch evaluation involving over 60 workers has been completed. Overall, the feedback was positive, and all workers in the study reported that they would use the website again in the future as well as recommend it to others. The evaluation also showed that over 2-3 months of using the website, the workers increased their understanding of troubling behaviours and their confidence increased. They also reported feeling more supported in their work.
Visit the website at www.handsonscotland.co.uk