Workshop project to help tackle suicide rise

COMMUNITIES and individuals across the county affected by mental health issues and the ongoing scourge of rural suicide have been invited to take part in a special volunteer training workshop in Galway city this weekend.

The See Change group – made up of representatives from 70 different organisations across the country – are organising the workship on this Saturday, January 31, at the Croi na Gaillimhe Resource Centre in Mill Street (close to the Garda Station), from 12 noon until 4pm.

The workshop is part of the 2015 Green Ribbon campaign aimed at breaking down barriers and stigmas relating to mental issues in Ireland – it will train people to get their local communities talking about and addressing mental health issues.

Saturday’s training volunteer training workshops will cover the following topics:

• Mental health, stigma and Irish attitudes.
• The most effective ways to challenge stigma and get people talking.
• Starting a conversation about mental health.
• Developing your own stigma-challenging ideas, projects and initiatives.
• Running events that will get your community talking about mental health.
• Ways of lending a hand with the See Change campaign.
• Developing your local action plan for Green Ribbon month 2015.

For those who are interested in attending email Volunteer@seechange.ie to book their place while the IFA’s National Chairperson of the Farm Family and Social Affairs Committee, Maura Canning, can also be contacted by anyone interest in the workshop at 087-6478771.

“See Change are doing wonderful work to change attitudes around mental health issues, especially in rural Ireland. We need to get people talking about mental health issues and not to feel any stigma about this topic – it really is just like any other health issue that we face,” Maura Canning told The Farming Tribune.

Over recent years, See Change has identified three main groups that need to be targeted in terms of mental health issues and the follow-on problem of suicide.

These categories are young males in the 18 to 24 age group, people in the workplace, and farmers and people living in rural communities.

“See Change is Ireland’s national programme working to change minds about mental health problems in Ireland.

“We’re working in partnership with over seventy organisations to create a community driven social movement to reduce the stigma and discrimination associated with mental health problems.

“We’re passionate about equality, and part of our mission is to ensure that everyone enjoys the same rights on an equal basis,” said a spokesman for the See Change group.