Upcoming: South Tipperary local mental health forum information day

The South Tipperary local mental forum will be holding an Information Day on Saturday May 18^th at the Main Guard in Clonmel from 12pm – 3pm.

The local forum in South Tipperary was set up by the HSE’s community healthcare services in the South East – as part of their initiative in working with people who use mental health services and with their family members, carers, supporters and staff.

This is a partnership approach to mental health services improvement where they will meet on the second Wednesday of each month in the Clonmel Involvement Centre at 5.30pm. They will be taking feedback from people’s lived experience, progress plans, and decide together how to improve the services for everyone.

The establishment of the forums follow on from recommendations in the national mental health strategy “Sharing the vision” and the HSE’s own national strategy for service user involvement. The HSE’s mental health division operational plan included the strategic priority “that Service users, families and carers are central to the design, planning, delivery and evaluation of services."

The HSE’s Community Healthcare service areas nationwide have Area Leads for Mental Health Engagement and Recovery, with Paul Fallon being in place to serve the South East (services in counties Carlow, Kilkenny, South Tipperary, Waterford and Wexford).

Speaking about the information meetings, Paul Fallon said:

“The purpose of my post is to consult and present the views of mental health service users, family members and carers through engagement and partnership and to influence decision making at area management level in the South East. This is a great opportunity for people to have their voice heard, to be part of the development and design of the mental health services for their community and beyond.

“Along with my colleagues in the Community Healthcare services in South Tipperary, I want to hear from people around the area as to how we can further develop mechanisms for engagement of service users, their family members and carers. I will be dedicated to allowing for their involvement in the planning, design, implementation and evaluation of mental health services.”