Midlands Community Mental Health Initiative is launched
The Midlands Area HSE and its partners came together on Monday last to launch a new community mental health initiative for the region, the aim of which is to enhance how mental health services are delivered in Westmeath and its neighbouring counties.The new initiative comes as a result of a full assessment of community mental health promotion programmes in the Midlands.It will see a reorganisation of the delivery of elements of the programmes, with a view to deliver a number of specifically targeted programmes to key groups within the community. It will be in line with the HSE National Suicide Prevention Strategy and A Vision for Change.Launching the initiative, John Moloney TD, Minister for Disability and Mental Health, welcomed the initiative as “an important step to ensuring that the appropriate programmes/services are delivered in partnership and in an efficient manner to the people that matter.“The primary objective of this midlands initiative is to foster within the community an awareness that mental health is everybody’s concern and that the best way to promote positive mental health is through community response.”They key groups/areas identified under the initiative are secondary schools, community groups, the unemployed and the workplace, which will be delivered by Mental Health Ireland, GROW, SHINE and GROW respectively. With regard to community groups and those in the workplace, GROW will deliver suicide prevention programmes, while SHINE will address issues with regard to unemployed people and the financial/personal challenges they face. Meanwhile, Mental Health Ireland will deliver awareness programmes to senior cycle students in secondary schools in the Midlands.The new initiative will run from June 2010 to December 2011, and is being run in tandem with existing programmes such as ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training) and support groups run by voluntary partners.For further information, please contact the Longford/Westmeath Local Health Office on 044-9395111, or Josephine Rigney, HSE Suicide Resource Office on 086-8157850 or 057-9327909.