Jigsaw: helping troubled young people put the pieces together

Date Published: {J}

There is nothing as horrible for a family as when a young person is going through a bad time. They feel abandoned, ashamed and neglected, and what happens then is that they can turn on each other.”

Psychologist Tony Bates is well qualified to talk about how young people and their families feel in times of trouble. The former Principal Clinical Psychologist in St James’s Hospital, Dublin, he edited the Government’s current mental health policy, a Vision for Change, which was published in 2006.

It was Tony’s awareness of shortcomings in the state’s services that led him to set up Headstrong, an independent charitable organisation which focuses on mental health issues for young people. And it was as a result of Headstrong’s campaign that Galway became the first county in Ireland to set up Jigsaw, a free support service for people aged 15-25, which opened over a year ago in Mary Street in Galway city centre.

The state’s mental health services have traditionally been at their weakest when dealing with teens and young adults, which is more than short-sighted, because maintaining good mental health during these crucial years can affect a person’s whole life.

But that’s where Jigsaw, a partnership between Headstrong, the HSE and Mental Health Ireland is making a difference.

It is a community centred service which offers confidential, non-judgemental support to young people across a whole range of areas including relationships, eating, drugs, sex and sexuality, stress, decision-making and anxiety.

If people need to get further help or advice on their problem, the staff at the centre will make sure that they are sent to the right place. Jigsaw is, to use an often abused phrase, a holistic service aimed at supporting a group of people who are often overlooked or disparaged.

“They might come here for information or just to hang out. They shouldn’t feel they have to come with a problem,” says Tony about the warm, comfortable centre on Mary Street. And he adds that the patio area out the back facilitates smokers.

“It might take a few visits before people get to what they want to talk about. The idea is not to put pressure on them.

“The range of problems dealt with here would range from very minor, but critical in that person’s life, to being dangerous for the person.”

Tony describes the Jigsaw as “stage-appropriate intervention” and says that “the idea is to catch people before [any problem] becomes as serious as suicide”.

Since it opened, 588 people have gone through the doors of Jigsaw Galway – 53 per cent of those were male. Others have accessed the service through its website, by text or referral. “Many of these were self-referrals, and so young people feel this is a safe place to come to,” says Tony.

For more, read page 27 of this week’s Galway City Tribune.