What is Connect Mental Health

Connect Mental Health is a three day mental health awareness event that will take place from October 8^th -10^th 2015. The date is significant with the event planned to conincide with World Mental Health Day, October 10^th.

About Connect Mental Health

Connect Mental Health was founded in January 2015 to help raise awareness of mental health issues in South Donegal. The event aims to empower the local community with practical tools and advice on how to improve and maintain their mental health.

Connect Mental Health is run entirely by a core group of volunteers with the support of the HSE, Mental Health Ireland, Aware, Pieta House, Suicide or Survive and other

Mission:

‘Empower the community to improve and maintain each others mental health’

Goals:

Through educational seminars, workshops and the creative arts, Connect Mental Health aims to:

Raise awareness of mental health issues
Challenge mental health prejudice
Provide the local community with advice and tools on how to help themselves, a friend or family member in distress
Focus on the importance of social connections

Local context

Along with the rest of the country, Donegal has faced major economic, social and financial change in the last decade. These challenges include population growth, increasing diversity, high levels of unemployment, poverty, homelessness, social deprivation, alcohol and drug misuse and financial difficulty arising from the recent economic downturn. New technologies have changed personal and business communications and the increasing presence of social media and the immediacy of communications are bringing new challenges for everyone, especially teenagers and young adults. The Irish healthcare and social care services have also gone through a series of reforms. In the Community and Voluntary and non-statutory sector, whilst new agencies, groups and supports have been established to address the issues of mental health and suicide prevention, this sector has been severely challenged by recent structural reforms and lack of funding.

Target demographic:

The event aims to target needs of the local community across different age demograhics. We will run specific events in schools on Thursday the 8^th of October adnd Friday October 9^th targeted at youth mental health. While the workshops on Saturday, the fun 5k / 10k wand run and the film screenings will be targeted at a wider audience. Some workshops will focus on specific areas of need in the community.

Target areas:

The inaugural event will target the South Donegal area to inlcude the following towns and their surrounding areas:

Ballyshannon
Donegal Town
Bundoran

The event is open to people from all walks of life from across the country or further afield. Over the course of the next few years we aim to grow and deliver a countywide event.