As we mark Mental Health Awareness Week 2026, we are invited to look beyond what is visible and notice struggles that are too often hidden from view. Behind the walls of Scotland’s prisons, mental ill-health is not the exception; it is the norm. The Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland reports that 76 per cent of people arriving in prison already have a history of mental ill-health.

In Psalm 57, where David cries out to God from a cave. In that dark place, he discovers that what feels like confinement is not abandonment, but refuge. He finds himself held by a loving God whose presence does not disappear behind walls.

But that leaves us with an important question: What happens when the cave door opens?