Charity Sane to recruit marketing chief

Mental health charity Sane is looking for a head of marketing and development following the departure last week of Louisa Sinclair.

Sinclair is leaving after just a year to take up the position of marketing and development manager at the Royal College of Nursing.

She was instrumental in the development of Sane Xtra Care, a London-only mental health telephone counselling service, and her successor is likely to expand the service across the UK.

Sane operations director Helen Hyslop says that under the National Services Framework, the Government checklist for health authorities, each authority is obliged to provide mental health services. She says Sane’s telephone counselling service would help authorities meet these obligations while also allowing patients access to an immediate service, as Sane Xtra Care is available within 24 hours.

Hyslop says: “The British Association for Counselling now accepts that telephone counselling is an acceptable way to give services.”

The pilot scheme has been running for nine months and works on referrals from GPs and social service teams through a team of qualified counsellors based in London.

Sane’s advertising is handled by Paling Walters Targis on a project basis.