Sea Sanctuary, a Cornish mental health charity, is celebrating success after being awarded £65,000 in National Lottery funding to support its essential work within the local community.

The charity, based in Penryn, will use the funds for community-based programmes to tackle loneliness and offer hope, help, and support to some of Cornwall's most vulnerable residents.

The charity was founded by Joseph Sabien in 2006 after he identified that conventional treatment and the dominant model of mental health care did not adequately address the complex challenges of mental illness for many.

Sea Sanctuary believes the 'environment is the key to recovery' and delivers most of its activities around the natural marine environment while helping people

towards healthier life choices.

The charity has years of success in combining evidence-based therapies with marine-based activities to provide an invigorating sense of adventure along with the help and support people require to build and sustain emotional resilience and an improved level of wellbeing.

The team at Sea Sanctuary provide therapeutic workshops, individual therapy sessions, and community support groups, including a residential sailing programme, 'Sail into Life', as featured on BBC local and national news.

Sea Sanctuary's most recent addition to its services is the award-winning G999 project, an innovative community partnership between the Devon & Cornwall Police and Sea Sanctuary.

The service provides out of hours help to people where police involvement has been sought, usually at times of acute mental health crisis.

Working unsociable hours, the G999 team supports police officers with the aim to achieve the best possible outcome and thereafter, the team at Sea Sanctuary are able to offer a detailed aftercare package to address the underlying cause of distress.

As a result of the funding, the charity is delighted to extend its current programmes; including the long-standing art workshop, which has been particularly useful in tackling loneliness and isolation as both of these have been identified as a major health challenge facing the UK in recent years.

As restrictions of COVID-19 lift, Sea Sanctuary will increase local support within the community such as sail programmes, community outreach, and new support mechanisms to ensure people remain buoyant throughout these difficult times and beyond.

COVID-19 and mandatory self-isolation have created a unique situation, with far more people suddenly at risk of experiencing problematic loneliness.

As such, there has never been a more fitting time for Sea Sanctuary to have received the financial uplift by way of an award.

Sea Sanctuary's services are now not only looking at improving wellbeing and mental health but also looking at ways of creating and maintaining meaningful connections for many isolated people.

The new funding from The National Lottery Community Fund, which distributes money raised by National Lottery players for good causes, will enable Sea Sanctuary to offer these sessions to clients either free of charge or at a nominal cost.

Joe Sabien CEO says:

"We're delighted that The National Lottery Community Fund has recognised our work in this way. Now, thanks to National Lottery players, we will be able to support many people who are struggling at this time.

"This is important because the mental health impact of the pandemic is likely to last much longer than the physical health impact."