Action Mental Health’s counselling service, AMH New Life Counselling delivers vital and life-changing counselling services in some of the most disadvantaged areas across Belfast, providing support at this time of need to communities and clients hardest hit by COVID-19.
Over the last 12 months of the lockdown, many clients have experienced an increase in psychological stress due to the negative impact of the pandemic. It’s recognised that the gaps in health inequalities have grown, and many of our clients, who are unemployed or in low paid work, have faced considerable financial struggles to make ends meet.
As a result of funding from Department of Health, Belfast Protect Life Implementation Group (BPLIG) has enabled a city wide response via a number of agencies including AMH/New Life Counselling, to support clients at their time of need.
Clients in receipt of counselling or bereavement services who have been struggling financially during the pandemic have been given a practical boost with the gift of emergency food hampers and helpful mental health resource pack.
AMH New Life Counselling will help lift the burden of COVID-19 a little and stay connected with clients providing access to services remotely while they wait for face-to-face counselling to resume.
Team leader with AMH New Life Counselling, Sarah Grant-Jones, explains: “For many of our clients already struggling financially, COVID-19 has brought additional challenges. The food hampers have provided not only practical help but also the offer of mental and emotional support through the resource leaflet that accompanied it. At a time when connection is challenged we have been able to show that we care and that we are still listening!”
Frances Dowds Emotional Health & Wellbeing Manager, Public Health Agency said: “This is one of three initiatives BPLIG have supported to address the needs of our community, city wide. A leaflet targeting GPs will also raise awareness of bereavement services available across the city and joint work on improving access to services for families bereaved as a result of drugs and alcohol, is also moving forward. Working through local agencies such as Action Mental Health enables practical supports to be targeted to those in receipt of services who need them most.”
AMH New Life Counselling, is committed more than ever, to supporting the emotional health and well-being needs of clients. Services are provided through a caring, compassionate and non-judgemental counselling support service, at a time when people need it most.
For further information on the services AMH New Life Counselling provides, please check out our website: www.amh.org, which continues to work in communities hardest hit by the pandemic.
Children from Moyle Primary School proudly display their Tree of Strength
Children transitioning from primary to secondary school have been learning how to support their own well-being through an initiative delivered through a collaboration of local partner agencies, including Action Mental Health.
The move to ‘big school’ can often present many challenges for children, and in response, the Larne and Carrickfergus Locality Planning Group (LPG), part of the Children & Young People’s Strategic Partnership (CYPSP) and the Northern Health and Social Care Trust (NHSCT), offered the mental health promotion project to P7 pupils in the Larne and Carrickfergus areas.
The project, ‘Growing a Healthy, Positive Me,’ is based on Action Mental Health’s Healthy Me programme, which promotes well-being across Northern Ireland’s primary schools and raises awareness of mental health issues among children, their teachers, parents and key contacts.
The initiative aims to improve outcomes for children, young people and families in the area, with mental and emotional well-being identified as a priority.
Action Mental Health’s MensSana teams delivered 30 minute, bitesize ‘Healthy Me’ sessions to P7 classes, online, while they were homeschooling. The sessions led children through the principles of the Five Ways to Well-Being, which are key steps designed to promote overall well-being, and reached almost 200 pupils in nine schools.
The sessions were followed up with an arts and crafts project, in which pupils were asked to design a ‘Tree of Strength’. The Tree of Strength helped to reinforce the positive messages of the online sessions and prompted children to reflect on their own, individual strengths. It also helped to illustrate positive strategies children can use to cope with the challenges they may face in future.
The completed pieces of art were then entered into a competition for a chance to win a monetary prize sponsored by the Larne and Carrickfergus LPG which could be used to purchase Health and Well-Being resources for their schools.
The ‘Growing a Healthy Positive Me’ programme was evaluated as making a very positive impact on the children, who rated it as ‘very good’. One pupil said: “I loved taking time to think about all of the things I can do and the people I can talk to, to help me feel positive about myself and reduce my anxiety.’
A teacher also commented: “The webinar was interactive and very well thought out. Children really loved discussing and drawing the Tree of Strength. It is so relevant during these difficult times of lockdown.’
Kate McDermott, Health and Wellbeing Manager, Northern Health & Social Care Trust commented: “This is a very positive and welcoming initiative aimed at children transitioning from primary to secondary school during these challenging times. It reflects the responses from the Northern Area Parents, Children and Young People Survey 2020 which highlighted the need to address emotional health and resilience of children and young people at a local level”.
Karen Hillis, Service Manager with AMH MensSana commented: “The Growing a Healthy, Positive Me’ was a great initiative for Action Mental Health to be a part of, and it was an excellent example of collaborative working between the partner agencies of the Larne and Carrickfergus Locality Planning Group, Action Mental Health as well as all the schools and children involved.”
Working in partnership with CAUSE to deliver resilience and mental health training at this difficult time.
“The reminders on how to look after ourselves as carers was invaluable”
AMH New Life Counselling is a member of the Healthy Living Alliance, an award winning network of 29 community-led health improvement organisations based in areas of high health inequalities throughout the north of Ireland, both rural and urban. Healthy Living Centres, such as AMH New Life Counselling, are rooted in localities from Castlederg to Kilkeel and from Coleraine to South Armagh and are a key driver in connecting people up to services and linking the health sector and wider public sector up to working-class communities.
Our membership of the Alliance has enabled participation in the Department for Communities funded, Warm, Well and Connected programme during December 2020 – March 2021. The Healthy Living Centre Alliance across the region have been delivering a host of online workshops and programmes to help us get connected, take care of ourselves and learn new skills.
Our colleagues in the AMH MensSana team recently delivered two online sessions with a group of CAUSE carers focusing on compassion fatigue, resilience, mental health and connection, benefiting both carers and families.
AMH’s Andrew Sutherland said –
” I wish to thank and acknowledge the work of my colleagues Karen, Michael and Amanda from the AMH resilience team in delivering and supporting this work. It’s great that we have such wonderful skills within Action Mental Health to call on. I hope we can develop more partnership working with organisations such as CAUSE going forward”
Valerie Sullivan (CAUSE CEO) said –
“we are very pleased and grateful to Action Mental Health for providing guidance and support to our carers, particularly during this difficult time”.
Some of the feedback from Carers included :-
“The reminders on how to look after ourselves as careers was invaluable” “Michael’s calm voice providing so much helpful knowledge” “It was just what I needed. Developing resilience is so important.”
The Equality Commission for Northern Ireland and the Northern Ireland Union of Supported Employment are delighted to officially launch the ‘Making it Work’ publication today.
The new publication highlights the individual experiences of six disabled people who sought employment support services from a range of organisations to help them secure and retain employment. All of those who participated in this project have worked or trained in Northern Ireland throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, some as key workers.
Geraldine McGahey, Chief Commissioner of the Equality Commission said: “Our ‘Making it Work’ booklet highlights the much needed skills and abilities that disabled people can offer to our workforce and the employment support services that are available to them to help them into work.
“The individual stories used throughout the publication highlight the positive action and reasonable adjustments that some employers have put in place to ensure disabled people can thrive in their jobs. The stories included are real and personal and they will be used in new training sessions for employment advisors which will be delivered in partnership by colleagues from the Commission, Department for Communities, NIUSE and organisations from across the disability sector, the sessions start this week.
“I hope these real life experiences inspire others, individuals, advisors and employers, to enhance our workforce with more and better jobs for disabled people.”
Norman Sterritt, Chairperson of the Northern Ireland Union of Supported Employment also commented on the campaign and said: “We haveworked closely with the Equality Commission and organisations which offer Supported Employment services to produce this publication. We fully welcome their support and input to highlight the positive case studies and range of employment support services available across Northern Ireland.
“We know that employing people with disabilities makes good business sense, not only are employers getting an employee with the skills and abilities to do the job but they are increasing diversity and reflecting their local communities in the workplace. We hope this publication and its directory will be widely used to ensure that disabled people are given the same opportunities to access, maintain and progress in employment.”
Action Mental Health’s Operations Manager, Resilience and Well-Being, Amanda Jones
A new report published by the Anna Freud Centre today finds that 93% of over 3,000 young people surveyed in the UK want mental health to be brought into the classroom, and for conversations about mental health to be normalised in schools and FE colleges.1 The report emerges as the coronavirus pandemic and closure of schools has had a profound impact on children and young people’s mental health. In England, the proportion of children and young people with a probable mental health disorder has risen from one in eight in November 2017, up to one in six in July 2020.
These findings are published as the Anna Freud Centre launches Mentally Healthy Schools for secondary schools and FE settings, the UK’s first information and resource hub offering free, quality assured mental health resources and guidance for education professionals. This follows the success of the primary school hub which has been accessed over 1 million times.
Action Mental Health’s Operations Manager, Resilience and Well-being, Amanda Jones said the findings of the report reflect a similar experience among Northern Ireland’s children. Young people here have been impacted by issues of loneliness, loss of routine, uncertainty about exams and the future, alongside fears of bringing Covid-19 home to their loved ones.
The new report highlights the importance of trusted relationships in young people’s lives as they face the challenges of growing up and amidst the pressures of the pandemic. Although some say they won’t speak to anyone when they are struggling, many will turn to friends. Over 92% of respondents identify friendships as the main factor positively impacting their mental health. Students said more mental health should be taught in schools as it is important for supporting their own and each other’s mental health, because mental health matters, and to encourage people to self-support and avoid being isolated.
As one student says: “It is just as important as physical health and not talked about enough. People feel too ashamed to get help and this needs to change.”
Staff in schools and FE colleges are valued by students as trusted sources of information and support, with 52% of young people saying they would talk to a member of staff about their concerns. So while schools have made great advances in supporting their students, there is more work to be done to open up conversations about mental health. For those who would seek support from someone in school, they are most likely to turn to a trusted teacher.
Nearly a quarter of respondents said the main benefit of discussing mental health at school was that it is easier than talking to family, and one in five young people said that having a friend or peer for support was the main benefit of discussing mental health topics in school. The most important topic areas young people said they would like to learn more about were depression and anxiety, body image and identity. The new findings are from a survey of over 3,000 young people in the UK aged between 11 and 19, who were asked about their mental health and wellbeing.
All are within secondary schools or FE colleges. The survey was conducted between 16 November 2020 and 1 January 2021 by the Anna Freud Centre and its findings are reported in “Working towards mentally healthy schools and colleges: the voice of students”.
Jaime Smith, Director of the Schools Programme at the Anna Freud Centre, says: “From these new findings, we hear the voices of students at this critical time for schools. They tell us that the current generation of children and young people, who are living through the pandemic, actively want to learn and talk more about mental health. We should embrace their openness as a genuine opportunity for schools to prioritise mental health and wellbeing”. She adds, “We need to support all school staff, parents and carers, governors, and students to work together to take a whole-school approach to mental health. This has never been more crucial than now, when it is essential that children and young people are able to turn to someone they can trust for support in times of distress – whether that includes their own friendship groups, school staff or the other trusted adults in their lives.”
Dr Alex George, recently appointed by the Prime Minister as Youth Mental Health Ambassador, says: “This has been an incredibly challenging time for everyone, and schools and colleges play a critical role. Mental health problems among young people were rising before coronavirus, but successive lockdowns have increased problems”.
He continues, “Following the return of schools, we expect many more children will need increased help. Without timely support, mental health distress in children and young people can have a devastating impact on their lives in the years to come. School staff will need help to fully support their students. It is only by all of us working together and talking openly about mental health that we can ensure all schools become mentally healthy. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to put mental health at the heart of schools and colleges.”
Throughout the UK, there are already a range of polices in place for mental health education in schools and FE colleges. In England, these include The Green Paper on children and young people’s mental health, as well as Health Education and Relationships Education (for primary settings) and Relationships and Sex Education (for secondary settings). These are now compulsory parts of broader PSHE education. Mentally Healthy Schools was launched in 2018 by the Anna Freud Centre’s Patron, Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge. It has been funded by The Royal Foundation as a legacy project of the Heads Together campaign.
Action Mental Health’s Operations Manager, Resilience and Well-being, Amanda Jones commented: “The report published by the Anna Freud Centre echoes what we are hearing from our children and young people across Northern Ireland. We know they are coping with many issues including loneliness, loss of routine, uncertainty about exams and the future, fears about Covid-19 and the worry they carry about the possibility of bringing the virus home to their loved ones.
“Action Mental Health is also hearing from schools that they are concerned about how they can support their children and young people to maintain positive well-being and build their resilience in the face of this adversity, and how they can help those children and young people who may need additional support,” she added.
“Action Mental Health has worked with the Anna Freud Foundation in the development of The Mentally Healthy Schools Hub. This excellent, accessible hub includes quality assured mental health and emotional wellbeing resources for schools and FE Colleges specifically designed to include local information and support services.
“Our AMH MensSana teams continue to provide free emotional well-being and resilience programmes for primary and post primary schools and FE colleges across Northern Ireland. These programmes have been proven to help children and young people to maintain positive well-being and to access help when they need it, as well as helping teachers to understand how they can support emotional well-being in their setting and the importance of also looking after their own mental health and well-being.”
Being a young carer is difficult at the best of times, but during the past year of the coronavirus pandemic, young carers are feeling more stressed, anxious, isolated and fearful than ever before.
Today is Young Carers Day 2021 and as we shine the spotlight on life as a young carer, their personal experiences – in their own words – makes for stark reading.
A study by the Carers Trust has reported a steep decline in the mental health of those classed as young carers – with some carers being as young as 12 years of age. It found that many are fearful for their futures and in the most extreme cases, young carers were looking after others for up to 90 hours per week.
The survey showed the pandemic’s dramatic impact on wider well-being:
40% of young carers and 59% of young adult carers say their mental health is worse since Coronavirus.
67% of young carers and 78% of young adult carers are more worried about the future since Coronavirus.
66% of young carers and 74% of young adult carers are feeling more stressed since Coronavirus.
69% of both young carers and young adult carers are feeling less connected to others since Coronavirus.
11% of young carers and 19.7% of young adult carers report an increase of 30 hours or more in the amount of time they spend caring per week.
56% of young carers say their education is suffering since Coronavirus.
52% of young adult carers feel overwhelmed by the pressures they are facing now.
49% of young adult carers are struggling to look after themselves.
50% of young adult carers are having to spend more money due to Coronavirus.
66% of young carers and 71% of young adult carers are less able to stay in touch with friends since Coronavirus.
15 year old male carer: “I am unable to do my school work properly. I am finding it hard to concentrate because I am worried about the person I care for. And my mental health is going downhill which is making this situation a lot harder.”
12-year-old female carer: “When I was in school that was the time for me. Now every day is the same.” I haven’t been able to get out and talk to all my friends after school. I haven’t been able to go over to family’s houses to stop for a break.”
16-year-old female carer: “It has made me feel major cases of depression and anxiety. I feel trapped. Before my freedom to go out was larger now I have to be careful which is fine but I don’t go out as much and I feel like I’m losing confidence and my connection with my friends. I have also been gaining a lot of pent up emotions.”
18-year-old male carer:“I feel as if it has made it more difficult to care for my father as I have been unable to take care of myself properly.”
12-year-old female carer: “I have lost contact with my friends and I have lost confidence in myself. My overall motivation is very low.”
13-year-old:“It has put more stress on me and my education and has made my anxiety so high.”
14-year-old male carer: “Caring for much longer, Too much work piled in front of me from school, no support from teachers, not being able to contact friends quite often and having no time for myself to do things that normal teenagers are able to do.”
Local help and support
But help is out there. There are local avenues of support that understand what it is like to be a young carer and have useful information and advice. Some also organise fun things to do and give you the opportunity to meet other young carers.
Action Mental Health is helping people diagnosed with MS in Northern Ireland cope with their condition through a new support initiative, the Mind My MS project.
Some 400 people are diagnosed with MS every year in Northern Ireland, leaving many reeling from the changes in their everyday life and the shift in what they thought the future posed for them.
Action Mental Health’s specialist counselling service, AMH New Life Counselling is collaborating with the MS Society in Northern Ireland to provide free one-to-one counselling, which is online currently, due to the ongoing pandemic.
The project is now offering places to those living with MS, inviting them to join the network of support being offered, where they may feel the benefit of the camaraderie of fellow sufferers. The project includes Connect Cafes facilitated by the MS Society, Mindfulness programmes delivered by Aware Defeat Depression and counselling provided by AMH New Life Counselling.
The project has been running for a year, delivering valuable support to people living with multiple sclerosis, according to clients benefitting from the service.
One client said:
“Counselling helped me overcome obstacles in my life that were hindering my happiness and it was so good to be able to talk things through. I felt listened to and understood.”
Another said:
“My family say that I am more like my old self, which has made me feel better about myself and my future. I’ve learnt so much about myself and know what to do now, when I am feeling low or anxious.”
A fellow sufferer added:
“I was delighted with the service and working over the phone really suited me with my health conditions. Thank you so much, for everything – keep up the good work!”
The talented bunch from Fermanagh Men’s Shed – based at Action Mental Health’s New Horizons service in Drumcoo, Enniskillen – have been working with David Bolton from the Fermanagh Beekeepers Association to produce wooden bee boxes.
David Bolton, Fermanagh Beekeepers & David Lowe AMH Project Officer Men’s Shed, Fermanagh
The boxes are made to tried and trusted dimensions to provide just the right accommodation for the bees. The “Shedders” have also created a detachable top and front on each box. The aim is to increase the population of wild bees in Fermanagh and in doing so to increase the population of pollinators in the county. The boxes will be monitored remotely using a device similar to those used in shipping containers to record the internal humidity and temperature. This means that it will be possible to detect when a swarm of bees arrives and takes up residence in the boxes and when they leave! The boxes will be strapped to trees at a height of about 10 – 15 m above the ground with a recording device secured inside. Then it’s just a matter of waiting for the bees to arrive and decide to move in.
David Lowe of the Men’s Shed said –
“this has been a great project to be part of and has kept the woodworkers in our Shed busy during Covid! We are looking forward to hearing how the bees of Fermanagh like their new accommodation!
Men’s Shed is a project for men aged 50+ to share skills, socialise and connect with their wider community. Action Mental Health run 3 Sheds in Steeple Antrim, Downpatrick and Fermanagh, for more information visit here.
