Zentia lends a mental health charity a Helping Hand

Ceilings manufacturer Zentia helps refurbish Glasgow Mental Health Network’s offices.

Leading UK ceilings manufacturer Zentia has helped a mental health charity with a facelift for its offices.

The Gateshead-based company donated 300m² of its mineral ceiling tiles to the refurbishment of the offices in Glasgow that are home to the Glasgow Mental Health Network charity that celebrates its 21^st anniversary this year.

The charity has been based in Templeton Business Centre, in the East end of Glasgow for 15 of those years, but the building is more than 100 years old and was in need of improvement.

As part of the wider project, Zentia supplied ceiling systems through specialist sub-contractor Glasgow Ceilings, who provided a team of two for a total of two weeks, installing the 600mm x 600mm tiles on a Prelude 24 TLS grid in the medical rooms and corridors.

Zentia sales and marketing director Graham Taylor said: “We were delighted to be able to provide some tangible assistance to our sub-contractor and main contractor partners in all of our efforts to help people who need mental health support.”

Glasgow Ceilings’ director Gerrard Winter explained they were asked to get involved through main contractor BAM Construction, who support the HWS Helping Hand initiative as part of their social value commitment to their North-East Hub Project in Parkhead.

Jim Ward, Regional Director, BAM Construction, said: “This was a great opportunity for BAM Construction and our supply chain to demonstrate our commitment to the local community and the social value that our projects deliver.”

HWS is a joint-venture organisation owned by both the public and private sectors which works with public bodies in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde area to design and construct facilities which provide services to local communities.

The ‘Helping Hands’ initiative was created by HWS to support an identified local community project or group with materials and labour to support the upgrading of an existing community resource.

A HWS spokesperson said: “This year, we’re supporting a charity whose work is more in demand now than it has ever been – the Mental Health Network in the East end of Glasgow. This has been on the back of our project with the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde at Parkhead, a £70 million new health and care centre.

“We visited the charity to create a ‘wish list’ of items they would love to have refurbished and we sent this wish list to our supply chain. As they are supporters of our previous Helping Hands projects they responded very generously. We have had every item on the wish list allocated and this also includes volunteers and cash donations. The overall value of the works will be in excess of £100,000.”

The spokesperson added: “Enhancing the facilities into a more modern and vibrant space will enable the Network to not only continue to provide the current level of support within a more welcoming environment, but to also welcome new members to join them.

“In addition, the initiative will help us to provide a better space to deliver training from and facilitate helping members to re-engage with local service providers and in doing so reach more people and have a greater impact on social isolation and loneliness within the community.”

Gerrard Winter said: “We were more than happy to be involved with the project, as it’s a mental health unit, it is a great help to the local community.

“Our first large-scale project involving Zentia was with BAM Construction at Clydebank Health Centre which was completed in 2021, and we are hoping to be involved with the Parkhead project being delivered through BAM and HWS.”

Prelude 24 is no longer available for order and has now been replaced by Gridline 24.