International Men’s Day (IMD), is celebrated today – Thursday, November 19, and is a global focus on men of all ages, in all their diversity. It’s about our fathers, partners, brothers and friends and this year highlights the importance of men’s health, male suicide rates and the underperformance of boys in schools.

As we mark IMD, the members of AMH Men’s Sheds share how they have been negotiating the past eight months since the pandemic arrived and changed the tapestry of all our lives.

Designed for men over 50, AMH Men’s Sheds are popular venues for support, socialising, learning and leisure. The hubs help its members pool resources and ultimately give back to the local community through a range of services, including the sale of a variety of products they hand-craft during sessions.

During the pandemic, members from AMH’s three Men’s Sheds around Northern Ireland have had to adjust. The project provides facilities for men in Action Mental Health’s services in Antrim, Downpatrick and Enniskillen.  

One member of AMH Men’s Shed, Downpatrick, said:

“I found it helpful to keep my mind on the things that I wanted and not the things that I didn’t want. During the last lockdown, I kept myself busy, stayed in contact with family by phone or skype and didn’t watch too much of the news.”

Supporting the ‘Shedders’ well-being in Fermanagh, David Lowe, Project Officer, commented:

“The shed has been described in many ways as a youth club for old guys!”

“Following the first lockdown many of the men saw the re-opening of the shed as being very important to them. It gives them a structure to their day and they feel valued from the things they do. The things they missed most was the hustle and bustle of the old shed and having a cup of tea and a hot meal together.

“Since March there has been a reduction in numbers attending, but many of the Shedders still meet to avail of the physical, educational and social activities. They continue to take part in activities such as willow weaving and upholstery classes as well as keep fit and yoga with instruction from experienced tutors,” he added

The men of the Downpatrick Men’s Sheds also shared their go-to tips, for lockdown and beyond. One member said:

“Get up early, try to be positive and lift the phone if you need to speak to someone.”

Another said:

“I have found that getting out of the house is great; just taking the dog for a walk gets you out and into the fresh air.”

The activities of the Men’s Sheds aim to increase the confidence, personal effectiveness and resilience of its members, as well as addressing social isolation by building friendship groups that are sustainable through the activities, which involve collaborative working and problem solving. For more information on your nearest AMH Men’s Shed visit https://www.amh.org.uk/services/mens-shed/ and follow them on facebook

@MensShedFermanagh

@MensShedDownpatrick

@MensShedSteepleAntrim

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As Action Mental Health continues its focus on bullying during Anti-Bullying Week, the charity is shining a light on some of the services that help support children in schools in myriad ways, including if they are victims of bullying.

Provoking Thought is one such project which helps secondary level children wade through their way the difficult years from 11 to 18 and beyond, to 25 years of age, within community group settings.

AMH MensSana project worker Leah Moore, explains that Provoking Thought, which she delivers in Northern Ireland’s secondary and grammar schools addresses many facets of bullying.

“We look at aspects like: ‘what is bullying’ and also questions like ‘what is friendship’ and what constitutes a good friendship. This is designed to let young people make the comparison with their own friendships to enable them assess if their friendships are good for them.

“We look at the question of why people bully others, as well as the symptoms of bullying and its mental health impact – on both the victim and their bully.”

Provoking Thought looks at how bullies can be supported by helping them to identify those around them who they can turn to for help.

Importantly, it teaches young people what they can do to help themselves if they find that they are victims of bullying.

Provoking Thought helps young people negotiate the much-publicised perils of social media and cyber bullying.

“It encourages them to think twice before they comment and whether it’s a helpful thought they intend to share publicly. Much of the bullying witnessed these days does centre around cyber bullying, and it can be very subtle,” she said.

Provoking Thought places a great emphasis on identifying people who are there to help and also on coping skills, focusing on the principals of The Five Ways to Well-Being to help illustrate ways of coping experiences of bullying they may encounter.

Reflecting the five points – Connect, Give, Keep Active, Take Notice, Keep Learning – Provoking Thought encourage pupils to ‘Connect’ with good and trusted friends. It also encourages them to ‘Give’ themselves a detox from social media and to step away from it for a while, especially if they are experiencing cyber bullying.

“This can help provide space to explore other things and to set small goals away from it,” she added. “And it helps identify individuals in their lives who young people can turn to and talk to if the occasion arises – even when it’s time to address things with the police.

“Ultimately we do a lot of talking around the topic and encourage them to discuss it among themselves, sometimes discussing areas in which bullying is often more prevalent, for example in ethnic minority and LGBTQ+ communities.”

Provoking Thought workshops are available to 11-25 year olds and their key contacts and can be delivered in schools, youth clubs and community groups.  (Can be delivered to 25+ also)

The aim of the workshop is to support young people/people and their key contacts in the area of mental and emotional wellbeing through a range of activities that are tailored to suit group needs. The workshops aim to be young people friendly, positive, interactive and informative.  The workshops are designed to explore issues and facilitate discussion around issues of mental and emotional wellbeing.

A mental health awareness Provoking Thought workshop can include information on the following:

• Recognising the importance of looking after our mental health and emotional well-being
• Developing confidence to seek help
• Raising awareness of signs and symptoms of mental distress
• Challenging the stigmas and misconceptions about mental health
• Identifying factors that cause stress in young people
• Developing mental health literacy
• Building resilience for well-being
• Highlighting the sources of support available
• Highlighting the value of coping skills

Read more about Provoking Thought here or contact our team.

AMH MensSana

T: 028 9442 5356 E: [email protected]
(all areas except Southern Trust Area)

T: 028 3839 2314 E: [email protected]
(Southern Trust Area)

As Anti-Bullying week continues, Action Mental Health is sharing the essential principles of its specialist children’s programme, Healthy Me.

As part of its engaging and interactive programme, Healthy Me helps children deal with diverse areas of emotional and mental health, including bullying, and aims to:

• Promote social and emotional well-being through problem-solving, coping skills, conflict management and managing feelings
• Improve the emotional and social well-being and resilience of children
• Encourage help-seeking behaviour in children and help them identify sources of support
• Improve children’s emotional literacy

 “There was P7 class in which a number of boys were on Snapchat and some of them were saying to one boy: “Go on and kill yourself; your mummy doesn’t love you anyway.”

“Some P7 boys said on Snapchat they were going to self-harm to look cool.”

“In our area, some children from ethnic minorities are teased by the others for their lack of fluency in English.”

“There are some children of higher ability who realise that others are struggling and are less capable and they can become the victims of hurtful talk.”

“Children who carry a bit more weight than the average child can often become the victim of teasing.”

Catherine Cunningham, project worker with Healthy Me addressed this anecdotal evidence and pointed to Healthy Me as a means to getting help to children when they need it most.

“Much of Healthy Me is focused on signposting adults who children can talk to, to help them if they are struggling in anyway, and with any of the childhood teasing and unhelpful playground behaviours that they face.

“At around this age group, children can be prone to name-calling and can become aware of their abilities, in comparison to others, and they can also start to struggle with their emotions.

“They can get very angry, especially in the playground and Healthy Me helps children work through people’s differences and helps illustrate the need to respect those differences.”

To find out more about Healthy Me and how your school or community group could benefit from this helpful programme contact the:

AMH MensSana team at:
T: 028 9442 5356 E: [email protected]
(all areas except Southern Trust Area)

T: 028 3839 2314 E: [email protected]
(Southern Trust Area)

Coronavirus continues to dominate the headlines and much of our lives, but this week – Anti-Bullying Week – will remind us of the pernicious issue that continues to blight young lives, pandemic or not.

Anti-Bullying Week 2020 takes place from Monday, November 16^th to Friday, November 20 with the theme ‘United Against Bullying.’ The Northern Ireland Anti-Bullying Forum (NIABF) coordinates Anti-Bullying Week in Northern Ireland and has published a manifesto for change to combat the issue.

As the NIABF observes:

“This year, more than ever, we’ve witnessed the positive power that society can have when we come together to tackle a common challenge. Anti-Bullying Week is no different. Bullying has a long lasting effect on those who experience and witness it. But by channelling our collective power, through shared efforts and shared ambitions, we can reduce bullying together. From parents and carers, to teachers and politicians, to children and young people, we all have a part to play in coming together to make a difference.”

As the NIAFB marks the important annual week with a variety of events, Action Mental Health is keen to focus on the part it plays to help children and young people deal with the myriad issues associated with bullying.

AMH MensSana is a service that caters for all ages, but also has a number of projects designed to help our younger generations negotiate their way through life – including the toughest parts, like bullying.

Healthy Me is one such programme. A vibrant and engaging mental health promotion programme, Healthy Me explores emotional and mental health, healthy lifestyle choices and pathways to effective support through imaginative and interactive play and song.

Healthy Me positively promotes mental health and social and emotional well-being in children and has a strong focus on prevention and self-help for Keystage 2 pupils aged from 8 to 11.

MensSana worker, Catherine Cunningham, explains how Healthy Me helps children deal with the complex arena of human emotions.

“We encourage the children to talk about relationships, feelings and behaviours they are familiar with, then we take a vote on what it is about ourselves that we can control, including our own behaviour and how we behave towards others.”

To illustrate this, Healthy Me practitioners employ a useful snippet from the blockbuster Disney movie, Frozen, in which loveable snowman Olaf sneezes and loses his carrot nose as a result. A hungry Sven, a reindeer, spies the vegetable and makes a move for it. But instead of eating it, as viewers suspects he will, Sven surprises everyone, especially Olaf.

Catherine explains:

“We discuss with the children how Sven controls his behaviour and thinks about Olaf’s thoughts and feelings and chooses a kind and helpful behaviour by giving the nose back.”

“Healthy Me encourages children to also talk about helpful and unhelpful feelings and actions and we ask them to put up their hand if they have ever done something mean to someone else. It doesn’t necessarily mean they are a bad person, but that sometimes, everyone feels that way.”

Catherine, a former primary school teacher spoke about ordinary feelings of frustration which can flare up in the playground when children don’t know what to do with their anger.

“A lot of Healthy Me is concentrated around what children can do that is positive instead of them taking things that upset them, out on themselves, or on others. It focuses on controlling their behaviour and how they can talk to someone to help them feel better and more positive about themselves.”

To find out more about Healthy Me and how your school or community group could benefit from this helpful programme contact the:

AMH MensSana team at:
T: 028 9442 5356 E: [email protected]
(all areas except Southern Trust Area)

T: 028 3839 2314 E: [email protected]
(Southern Trust Area)

Healthy Me sessions can also be delivered to parents and carers.

Action Mental Health wants everyone to make sure they have a mentally ‘Elfie’ Christmas while helping to raise much needed funds to support the charity’s vital services for people of all ages across Northern Ireland.

This festive season Action Mental Health is launching the ‘Elfie Day’ campaign and calling on people to get involved on 11^th December. The campaign is designed to encourage everyone to get into the seasonal spirit with AMH’s new yuletide sprite, Elfie.

Action Mental Health’s festive Elfie friend wants everyone to look the part for the day, by dressing up and also using AMH’s handy Yuletide collection of hat, beard and ears (available in our helpful fundraising pack). All you have to do is cut them out and post a selfie on our social media channels: it’s that easy! After such a tough year, it’s a great way to have some fun with friends, family and work colleagues and spread a little happiness– at a safe, social distance, of course!

Elfie is one of our Healthy Me characters, who spends the rest of the year helping our Project Workers who are supporting children aged from 8 to 11 to learn all about looking after their mental health and well-being in local primary schools.

You can join our little festive sprite by hosting an Elfie-themed fancy dress day and take some Elfie selfies; by setting up an online Christmas quiz or party night; or by organising a sponsored Elfie-themed walk or run. Or, why not hold an Elfie day at home, when you can decorate the house, bake an Elfie-based cake and sing along to festive tunes and then make a donation to support Action Mental Heath’s work.

You can register to host your Elfie day by clicking here.

Supporters are also being encouraged to take a daily dip into Elfie’s advent calendar for seasonal snippets of wisdom and inspirational messages and ideas for festive frolics aimed at promoting well-being at a time when some struggle more with their mental health. The advent calendar will be ‘opened’ everyday on AMH’s social media channels.

All funds raised will help support AMH’s local services. For example £65 could help to pay for a counselling session for a local person who is struggling to cope; £285 could help to pay for a 6 week arts-based therapy programme for a child; £500 could help to pay for specialist training to help people develop strategies for dealing with stress & anxiety; £1000 could help to pay for a resilience building programme to be delivered in a local primary school and £2000 could help to pay for a holistic family therapy Intervention programme for local families.

AMH has produced a comprehensive Fundraising Pack to provide a host of ideas on how to best to mark Elfie day, so visit amh.org.uk, email [email protected] or call the fundraising elves on 028 9182 8494.

A former lifeguard has returned to the pool to embark upon a fundraising challenge in aid of Action Mental Health, while turning the tide on an addiction.

Martin McLean, once a lifeguard in his local Armagh, retired from his last post as a government auditor and now at 57, he is preparing to swim 5000 metres – or 200 lengths in one session – to raise awareness of the issue of addiction and its impact on mental health and also to raise funds for local charity, Action Mental Health.

The avid swimmer will commence his challenge proper on Saturday, November 14 at 8am and is hopeful he’ll make good time and a great fundraising total.

It follows Martin’s struggle with occasional binge drinking, which had a detrimental impact on his personal life and relationships. But since committing himself to breaking the habit, Martin has dedicated himself to a healthier lifestyle and knocked his excessive drinking firmly on the head. Now Martin is focused more on the positive endorphin blast that comes with a workout in the pool.

Following each aquatic workout, Martin has been taking to Facebook to write about various aspects of mental ill health, some of which he has experienced personally, having been widowed in recent years and left with two boys to bring up alone.

Martin said a swimming challenge was the natural choice because he has osteoarthritis of the spine and needed to choose a low impact sport.

Hoping to raise £1000 for Action Mental Health, Martin elaborated more on the reasons for choosing the charity as the beneficiary.

“AMH gets help to where it needs it most. With one in five people in Northern Ireland experiencing mental health problems, sadly this subject is still largely taboo. Like most men, who won’t talk about their own mental health issues, I fell into the trap of internalising issues which left me feeling isolated, desperate, frustrated – the list is pretty long.

“Those of you who know me understand that I’m no Michael Phelps. I did this distance in the early 1990s in approximately one hour and 40 minutes, so I hope to do it this time in around two hours – but completing it will do just fine!” he said.

Action Mental Health’s Fundraising and Communications Manager Jonathan Smyth praised Martin’s efforts. “We are delighted that Martin chose Action Mental Health as the beneficiary for his amazing swimming challenge. Exercise is scientifically proven to improve people’s mental health and well-being and we are happy for Martin that he has gleaned such personal benefit from his challenge.”

If you would like to support Martin on his swimming challenge, you can donate by visiting: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/martin-mc-lean

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