{"id":26552,"date":"2025-10-02T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\/humansofscotland\/?p=26552"},"modified":"2025-09-25T13:04:05","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T12:04:05","slug":"davids-story-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\/humansofscotland\/davids-story-5\/","title":{"rendered":"David’s story"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I was widowed twenty-four years ago but in recent years I had become a bit of a recluse and I was really struggling with my mental health. It all changed for me when my GP referred me to a Community Link Worker (CLW). I wasn\u2019t aware of the service but when we first met, they took the time to get to know me, what my interests were, the things I was struggling with and started by putting me in touch with a few organisations and places I could go to talk and get the support I needed. One of the organisations was Glasgow Association for Mental Health (GAMH) and I have been working with them for a few years now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I first met with my CLW, I had very dark thoughts in my head but they encouraged me to get help and suggested things I can do to get out and about again. She takes the pressure off me, we have a laugh and I feel like I can tell her anything. She helped me to spread my wings and I have more confidence because I know that they are always there to talk to if I need them. I like to think that my life before I met my CLW was always winter but now, it is summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is rare to meet professionals that really care, but they do. I feel like she knows if there is a problem before I even do. She talks it through with me, makes it all manageable and looks for solutions and things I can do to help myself. Television used to be my life but now my brother says I have a better social life than anyone he knows. He says I have changed so much in the last couple of years. It has opened the world up for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are a constant support structure for me and continue to check in with me. My mental health has been better recently. I have had so much support over the past few years, and I am now in a place that I can start to repay some of that kindness. I am part of a focus group and have my own little support group at GAMH and I also speak to student groups through my doctor\u2019s surgery. I talk to my group of friends now and some of them haven\u2019t heard about the Community Link Worker programme. I encourage anyone to get in touch if they need help. As long as I am not stopping anyone else from accessing the support, I will continue to engage with my CLW. From the bottom of my heart, I cannot thank them enough for the work they do. They are not doing it for the praise, they are doing it because they have a genuine interest in people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

David’s story is part of the latest Humans of Scotland publication – Community Links Worker Edition. The book is available to read here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Read all Humans of Scotland stories here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was widowed twenty-four years ago but in recent years I had become a bit of a recluse and I was really struggling with my mental health. It all changed for me when my GP referred me to a Community Link Worker (CLW). I wasn\u2019t aware of the service but when we first met, they … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":26553,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"hos-category":[867],"humans_tags":[828],"area_of_work":[781,776],"strategic_priority":[813],"class_list":["post-26552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","hos-category-humans-of-scotland-community-links-worker-edition","humans_tags-services-and-support","area_of_work-community-links-worker-programme","area_of_work-humans-of-scotland","strategic_priority-voice-of-lived-experience"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDavid's story - Humans of Scotland<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\/humansofscotland\/davids-story-5\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"David's story - Humans of Scotland\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I was widowed twenty-four years ago but in recent years I had become a bit of a recluse and I was really struggling with my mental health. It all changed for me when my GP referred me to a Community Link Worker (CLW). I wasn\u2019t aware of the service but when we first met, they … Continued\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\/humansofscotland\/davids-story-5\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Humans of Scotland\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-10-02T09:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\/humansofscotland\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2025\/09\/David-photo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"968\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"554\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"rachelcairns\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"rachelcairns\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\\\/humansofscotland\\\/davids-story-5\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\\\/humansofscotland\\\/davids-story-5\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"rachelcairns\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\\\/humansofscotland\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e49fdf791f85a0b0e47111a9ac87bd67\"},\"headline\":\"David’s story\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-02T09:00:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\\\/humansofscotland\\\/davids-story-5\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":513,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\\\/humansofscotland\\\/davids-story-5\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\\\/humansofscotland\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/11\\\/2025\\\/09\\\/David-photo.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\\\/humansofscotland\\\/davids-story-5\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\\\/humansofscotland\\\/davids-story-5\\\/\",\"name\":\"David's story - Humans of Scotland\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\\\/humansofscotland\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\\\/humansofscotland\\\/davids-story-5\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\\\/humansofscotland\\\/davids-story-5\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\\\/humansofscotland\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/11\\\/2025\\\/09\\\/David-photo.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-02T09:00:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\\\/humansofscotland\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e49fdf791f85a0b0e47111a9ac87bd67\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\\\/humansofscotland\\\/davids-story-5\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\\\/humansofscotland\\\/davids-story-5\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\\\/humansofscotland\\\/davids-story-5\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\\\/humansofscotland\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/11\\\/2025\\\/09\\\/David-photo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\\\/humansofscotland\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/11\\\/2025\\\/09\\\/David-photo.jpg\",\"width\":968,\"height\":554},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\\\/humansofscotland\\\/davids-story-5\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\\\/humansofscotland\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"David’s story\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\\\/humansofscotland\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\\\/humansofscotland\\\/\",\"name\":\"Humans of Scotland\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\\\/humansofscotland\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\\\/humansofscotland\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e49fdf791f85a0b0e47111a9ac87bd67\",\"name\":\"rachelcairns\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/90b91e3dbf63c5b877eb5bb487d575cd6936ae0bd6140eec8175195509236265?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/90b91e3dbf63c5b877eb5bb487d575cd6936ae0bd6140eec8175195509236265?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/90b91e3dbf63c5b877eb5bb487d575cd6936ae0bd6140eec8175195509236265?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"rachelcairns\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\\\/humansofscotland\\\/author\\\/rachelcairns\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"David's story - Humans of Scotland","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\/humansofscotland\/davids-story-5\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"David's story - Humans of Scotland","og_description":"I was widowed twenty-four years ago but in recent years I had become a bit of a recluse and I was really struggling with my mental health. It all changed for me when my GP referred me to a Community Link Worker (CLW). I wasn\u2019t aware of the service but when we first met, they … Continued","og_url":"https:\/\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\/humansofscotland\/davids-story-5\/","og_site_name":"Humans of Scotland","article_published_time":"2025-10-02T09:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":968,"height":554,"url":"https:\/\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\/humansofscotland\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2025\/09\/David-photo.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"rachelcairns","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"rachelcairns","Estimated reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\/humansofscotland\/davids-story-5\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\/humansofscotland\/davids-story-5\/"},"author":{"name":"rachelcairns","@id":"https:\/\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\/humansofscotland\/#\/schema\/person\/e49fdf791f85a0b0e47111a9ac87bd67"},"headline":"David’s story","datePublished":"2025-10-02T09:00:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\/humansofscotland\/davids-story-5\/"},"wordCount":513,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\/humansofscotland\/davids-story-5\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\/humansofscotland\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2025\/09\/David-photo.jpg","inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\/humansofscotland\/davids-story-5\/","url":"https:\/\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\/humansofscotland\/davids-story-5\/","name":"David's story - Humans of Scotland","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\/humansofscotland\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\/humansofscotland\/davids-story-5\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\/humansofscotland\/davids-story-5\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\/humansofscotland\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2025\/09\/David-photo.jpg","datePublished":"2025-10-02T09:00:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\/humansofscotland\/#\/schema\/person\/e49fdf791f85a0b0e47111a9ac87bd67"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\/humansofscotland\/davids-story-5\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\/humansofscotland\/davids-story-5\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\/humansofscotland\/davids-story-5\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\/humansofscotland\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2025\/09\/David-photo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\/humansofscotland\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2025\/09\/David-photo.jpg","width":968,"height":554},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\/humansofscotland\/davids-story-5\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\/humansofscotland\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"David’s story"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\/humansofscotland\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\/humansofscotland\/","name":"Humans of Scotland","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\/humansofscotland\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\/humansofscotland\/#\/schema\/person\/e49fdf791f85a0b0e47111a9ac87bd67","name":"rachelcairns","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/90b91e3dbf63c5b877eb5bb487d575cd6936ae0bd6140eec8175195509236265?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/90b91e3dbf63c5b877eb5bb487d575cd6936ae0bd6140eec8175195509236265?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/90b91e3dbf63c5b877eb5bb487d575cd6936ae0bd6140eec8175195509236265?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"rachelcairns"},"url":"https:\/\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\/humansofscotland\/author\/rachelcairns\/"}]}},"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":true,"date":"2028-09-25 11:53:04","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"sections","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\/humansofscotland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\/humansofscotland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\/humansofscotland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\/humansofscotland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/109"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\/humansofscotland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\/humansofscotland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\/humansofscotland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\/humansofscotland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"hos-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\/humansofscotland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hos-category?post=26552"},{"taxonomy":"humans_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\/humansofscotland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/humans_tags?post=26552"},{"taxonomy":"area_of_work","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\/humansofscotland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/area_of_work?post=26552"},{"taxonomy":"strategic_priority","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\/humansofscotland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/strategic_priority?post=26552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}