Women's Aid East & Midlothian Limited
Women’s Aid East and Midlothian (WAEML) is a charity and company limited by guarantee to provide support, information and temporary accommodation to all women (including transwomen), children and young people who have experienced domestic abuse.
During the 1970s WAEML operated as part of Edinburgh and Lothian’s Women’s Aid; at the end of 1979 it was clear that the group was receiving enough referrals from the Midlothian area to warrant its own service and therefore a Dalkeith branch with its own office and refuge was established. In 1998, local government re-organisation led to the breakup of the Lothian regions and therefore in 1998 we established as an independent charity, Midlothian Women’s Aid. In 2008, due to financial demands, we made the decision to move from a full collective working structure and re-organised the group to create a structure of project teams led by a collective management group, Women’s Aid (Midlothian) Ltd. In November 2012 we successfully completed a procurement process to extend our services into East Lothian. It was in June 2013 the organisation changed its name to Women’s Aid East and Midlothian Ltd.
What you can expect?
For one to one support you will meet with a worker in private. We try to encourage you to meet alone but if you would like to bring a supportive friend or family member along please do so. Please let us know if you can so we arrange a room big enough.
Adults: we try to encourage a meeting without children so we may offer to get staff to take your children for a play session or arrange a future meeting to ensure we can speak openly. Please let us know about your child care situation
and we will do our best to help.
The support we offer is led by your needs. Staff will ask you some questions about yourself, anyone else living with you nd what your priorities are. Staff will likely ask questions about safety as it is always our aim to reduce risk.
Our confidentiality statement is displayed in our office spaces but the support worker will explain our policy. A general note is that everything you say to us is in confidence and we do not share this without your permission. The exception to this is where we believe there is an adult or child protection issue or where there is risk to life. We will be very clear with you if we feel we need to share information about you
We will discuss if you want us to keep in touch with you and the best way to do this. Note that accessing support from us is completely voluntary. If you no longer wish to receive support you just need to let us know and we will not contact you
Talk to someone in confidence, please call our support line:
Monday – Friday 9am – 4pm
Talk to someone in confidence, please call our support line:
Monday – Friday 9am – 4pm
0131 561 5800
Scottish Domestic Abuse and Forced Marriage helpline open 24/7: