Our Organisation
Who We Are
We are Scotland’s charity for people living with bipolar. Our vision is for a good life for everyone in Scotland who lives with bipolar. We are member-led, collaborative, advocates of peer support, rights-based and focused on equality, and lived experience is at the heart of everything we do.
We are currently working through our strategic plan, A Time To Move Forward, for 2021-2026: you can read it by clicking below.
We are a membership organisation and are governed by a board of directors, elected at our AGM. Each director serves a three year term and can then be elected for a further three years. Most of our directors live with bipolar, although we have two places to co-opt directors where there is a gap in our skills. The board meets every 6 weeks and our Chief Executive manages the organisation on a day to day basis, assisted by the Senior Management Team.
Our Story
Bipolar Scotland was formed in December 1992 by Dr Margaret Thomas and a group of dedicated volunteers who recognised how much self-help groups could help them. Our groups have always been the core of what we do. Dr Thomas, who is still a member, worked closely with the then Scottish Office to establish funding and premises and we haven’t looked back. We have always been “user-led” which in practice means our board of directors are elected from our membership. The organisation has gone through many changes as we have developed over 30 years, but peer support through support groups and self-management is always behind everything we do.
