Café raises a toast to good mental health

Rachel Maher has struggled with her mental health for at least two decades. And with a background in social care, the idea of drawing on her own experiences to offer support to others in the relaxed setting of a café really appealed to her.

That’s why the Galway Community Café opened last December in the Mr Waffle Café opposite University Hospital Galway.

A few years in development, it was set up as a four-year pilot with funding from the HSE following a proposal from the Galway Mental Health Forum. Its members saw a clear need for a community-based peer support service operating evenings and weekends when there was very little support available for people in a mental health conundrum.

It is thought to be the first of its kind in Ireland. It is free to use and anybody can log onto the website without need for a referral and book a time, Thursday to Sunday, 6.30-11.30pm. When not in lockdown they will attend in person at the café.

Once they enter at their allotted time, they are handed a menu for coffee, tea or water on one side and another menu on the other asking if they choose to sit alone or to chat with a worker. Under Level 5 restrictions, the chats are over the phone or by video link for around a half hour.

After Covid, the idea is that people can drop by, either to sit by themselves in a safe space or to chat to each other or to meet one of the “peer connectors”.

“We all have different mental health experiences, whether it’s a personal one themselves or of supporting a loved one or they might have professional experience,” says Rachel.

Read the full feature in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now – or you can download our digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie