Rural communities across the country face challenges including isolation, reduced access to services, and stigma around mental health. To address these issues, IRD Duhallow Community Project – which serves parts of East Kerry as well as areas of North and mid Cork - brought together community groups and speakers from across policy, research and frontline services to explore practical approaches that can improve mental health outcomes for people living in rural settings. The IRD Duhallow Rural Mental Health Conference took place in Newmarket on Friday, July 17th. Sari Houlihan spoke to:
- Minister of State with responsibility for mental health Mary Butler
- Shane McHale, rural community health worker with IRD Duhallow
- Dr Eve Griffin who is CEO of the National Suicide Research Foundation
- Catherine Borgan, chair of the Sharing the Vision National Implementation Committee – Ireland’s policy on mental health. She is CEO of Suicide or Survive.
- To access the free online men's counselling service - go to www.yourmentalhealth.ie/men; online services for young people include https://mymind.org/ and https://spunout.ie/ Connect Counselling https://connectcounselling.ie/ is a freephone counselling service available 7 days a week from 5 to 9pm on 1800477477. The Samaritans may be contacted any time https://www.samaritans.org/ireland/samaritans-ireland/
- Funded by the News Reporting Scheme.
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