Councillor Pinky McLean-Knight: the woman using community power to help those struggling with their mental health

Nebula is a peer-led mental health group, aimed at helping people who are struggling by giving them the support of people who can understand how they are feeling.

Pinky founded the group after struggling with her own mental health, thinking: "There must be other people like me that struggle with their mental health, or the mental health of a loved one, and they've got no one to talk to. So, I rocked up to my local community centre and I said ‘how much is a room’ and that was it."

She describes Nebula as “the middle ground. Where if you have struggled recently and you're trying to recover, or you're trying to maintain your mental health, that's the sort of thing where I really want to encourage people to come in. You're going to come into a room full of people who understand what you are feeling or have a very, very good idea.”

"I think it's important to know also here that I'm not a medical professional and neither do I advertise as such either. It is a peer-led group, and the wonderful thing about Nebula is that sense of community that's involved in it."

She has funded the group herself, paying for the hire of the room at the Hillcrest Centre and for teas and coffees for the people who attend.

"I will do it for long as it is needed. Because for me, the important part of the whole thing was having something that was free to access. I've never asked for any money off of anyone that comes in. And I never will either, because people shouldn't be put off going somewhere because they think they can't afford it."

"Anything can be talked about in that room. You know that whatever you speak about will stay there. I think that going into somewhere like that and feeling part of a tribe, part of a group and feeling included, knowing that you're not alone and knowing you're in a room full of people that know exactly where you're coming from. You get all these nods around the room, and then what starts happening is this amazing process of someone saying: well, of course, I can only speak for me, but I tried A,B,C, and this helped me. And they become this wonderful cohesive network."

The group named themselves Nebula after the birth of a star, as this is where light is created. They aim to brighten those whose light has been dimmed, “and the only payment that is ever even spoken about is that they pass that on to someone else. They then feel like they are able to help others."

Pinky also uses social media to help those through her mental health, which she says was increasingly important during lockdown. Her Tik Tok account, @punkauntypinky, has 125,000 followers where she speaks to those watching about mental health.

Nebula is about supporting and listening to people who are struggling. "You might not be able to solve their problem, but listening to them is sometimes all that it needed."

Nebula meets every Monday, 2pm until 4pm at the Hillcrest Centre.

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