New community mental health group launched in Nenagh

A new voluntary group dedicated to raising awareness about the services, struggles, and strategies that shape the pathway to better mental wellbeing in north Tipperary has been established by a group of Nenagh individuals.

The Nenagh Mental Health Awareness Community initiative is the brainchild of former Nenagh Darkness Into Light chairperson Brendan Murphy, who came up with the idea following a meeting of the group in February.

“I had a conversation with Ryan O’Meara (current chair of Nenagh Darkness Into Light). Ryan shared my views in relation to mental health awareness.

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This adds to the €1,100 plus raised the weekend before for St Vincent de Paul through a book sale too

“We spoke in more detail and pieced together the framework of what we felt would be a good initiative.

“We contacted some like minded individuals and held a meeting with the view of gathering feedback and forming a committee.

“The meeting was full of energy and enthusiasm and desire to do more for mental health in the community,” said Brendan.

He got involved with Darkness Into Light in 2018, the main fundraising event for the suicide support group Pieta House.
“Everyone has been affected by mental health issues directly or indirectly at some point in their lives.

"I firmly believe in the fantastic work that Pieta house and the many other established organisations do to help those who seek their services, but I always felt that as a community we could be doing more to help,” he said.

Brendan highlighted that the group were not medical professionals and will never offer therapeutic intervention under any circumstances.

“We are a group of volunteers from all walks of life whose aims include signposting the community toward appropriate services, shining a light on mental health issues, working to remove the stigma of mental health problems, identifying structural shortcomings and advocating for the provision of better services, promoting open and honest dialogue on the complex challenges faced by all of us as we seek to achieve emotional wellbeing,” he said.

Mr Murphy said that Nenagh Mental Health Awareness Community believed in the need, not only for the robust services to meet the requirements of the people, but also in the importance of non-judgmental conversations on our collective journey to wellness.

He pointed out that according to an OECD report, Ireland had one of the highest rates of mental health illness in Europe, ranking third out of 36 countries.

“When you look at the statistics of some of the younger age profiles the findings are shocking - almost 10% of young people aged 19-24 years have had a mental health disorder, and 15% of children aged between 11-13 years have also experienced a mental health disorder,” said Brendan.

Mr Murphy said that we needed to do more as a country in terms of the services that the State provided.
We also needed to do more as a community to raise awareness and we needed to do more as individuals in educating ourselves more about mental health and the signs and symptoms.

The Nenagh Mental Health Awareness Community committee comprises Tricia Delaney, PRO; Conor Reidy, editor; Brendan Murphy, chairperson; Ryan O’Meara, campaign / training facilitator; Eavan Carmody, social media coordinator; Kathleen Reidy, Chloe McCarthy and Gary Toohey.

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