A charity hopes to encourage local men to talk about their mental health as part of a new campaign.

MENtionitMoray is being run by Penumbra which works out of the Moray Mental Health and Wellbeing Hub in Elgin.

Participants are being sought to take part in three focus groups in Elgin, Buckie and Forres over the coming weeks to talk about their struggles in an open forum.

The aim of the project is to persuade more males to seek help when they need it rather than bottling up their feelings.

Suzy Gentle, recovery practitioner for Penumbra, is leading the campaign and hopes that the focus groups will help to solve the growing male suicide problem.

Suicide involving young men increased for the third consecutive year in 2017.

She said: “The rationale behind this campaign is that males don’t engage with their communities as much as females and don’t seek as much help through mental health services either.

“This is all about getting men talking and airing their worries, getting guys together and tell us what they are feeling and why they are not accessing the services.

“We’ve had a lot of interest so far and hope that this is just the start to get more men engaging with us.”

Ms Gentle hopes that if they can get to the bottom of men’s worries in Moray, it could lead to further workshops in the future tailored to what they need.

She said: “Across the board, men just don’t speak to each other when they are struggling with stress, feeling down or feeling anxious so hopefully this helps.

“We have advertised in pubs, at football grounds and in barbers specifically to target them and after the initial focus groups, we can look at expanding.

“We want to offer specific workshops on relationships, anxiety, coping mechanisms and challenge the stigma that sometimes comes with opening up.”

Three initial working group meetings will take place at Forres Community Centre on Tuesday April 23 from 10am until 12pm, Elgin Community Centre on Wednesday from 2pm until 4pm and Buckie High School on Tuesday May 7 from 10am until 2pm.

All men in Moray are invited along.