The impact of lockdown and the pandemic has had a big impact on many people’s mental health and well-being, meaning Action Mental Health’s services are needed now more than ever.

But, we need YOUR support as our fundraising income has been hit badly during this time.

You can help us by #TakingActionOnMentalHealth.

It’s NATIONAL FITNESS DAY on Wednesday 23rd September 2020 – why not fundraise for us with a virtual fundraising challenge?

Simply click here to REGISTER NOW.

You can register as an individual or as a team.

By doing so, you’ll not only help raise funds, you’ll be getting active and supporting your own mental health.

You can choose to walk, run, swim, cycle, wheel or even scoot! Anywhere and at anytime you wish – this is your virtual challenge. We just want you to set a target that you can meet by 23rd Sept.

Here are some examples of activities that you could choose to do:

• Swim 1 km, start now and build up your distance, so that you can meet your target by National Fitness Day.
• Choose to walk 5 km every day until September 23rd! Why not take the dog as well?
• Run – work up to running your first 10 km or maybe set a big target like 100 km and aim to hit it by 23rd Sept?
• Cycle 20 km every day picking a new route each day and visiting local beauty spots.
• Run a full marathon – get the running shoes out and get training to try and clock up 42 km on a day you choose.
• Get the KIDS involved! Cycle or scoot a loop of your park everyday!
• Do an Ultra-Challenge! Like cycle the distance from Malin to Mizen Head – c600km
• Or by choosing to do your own distance and activity, get creative!
  

Once you register and create your fundraising page you can link it to the Strava app to track your progress. Don’t worry if you don’t have the app – you can download it for free before or after you register.

One great added extra is the opportunity to get some friends together (while adhering to public health guidance) to take part in a team challenge.

So there you have it, there are plenty of options to get involved, and get fundraising.

Simply click here to REGISTER NOW. You can register as an individual or as a team.

You can complete the challenge any time between now and 23rd September, 2020.

For more details or ideas on how we can support you please email [email protected]. We’d love to hear your story and why you’re fundraising and we can also supply you with branded t-shirts and fundraising materials.

REGISTER BY CLICKING HERE!

NB If you plan to do this as a team, please follow these simple steps when registering…

For Team Captains – Create your team! (simply by selecting the Team Registration option), when you register.  You can give your team a name when you select the CREATE option, at this point you will be asked to add the contact details of all your team members, including their email addresses.

It is important to remember to do this when you CREATE your team, as members will be asked to FIND their team when they register, and will need to know the exact name you have given them, i.e., Julie’s Action Mental Health’s relay team.

Whatever you are doing, please do make sure you complete your activity safely and within the guidance on public health. Thank you.

Our Impact Report 2019/20 is now available to download!

Packed with stats from our recovery services and resilience services, it is a clear picture of how we are having an impact in our local communities.  We really are living up to our mission – to make a positive difference to people’s mental health and well-being!

A snap shot:

• 26,284 beneficiaries of AMH Resilience services
• 4,120 accredited training outcomes by AMH clients
• 197 clients progressed to paid employment, voluntary work  or further education or training
• Our messages to raise awareness and tackle stigma, reached 26M people via traditional and digital media
• New Life Counselling (then a member of the Action Mental Health Group) delivered 15,553 counselling sessions
• We had 176 wonderful people working in Action Mental Health

A hard copy is available by contacting [email protected] 

A full copy of the consolidated group annual report and audited accounts of the year to 31st March 2020 can be obtained by contacting [email protected].

As we approach the start of a new school year, after what has been a genuinely unprecedented period for everyone including children, young people, parents and teachers we are focused on ensuring mental health and emotional well-being is prioritised.

We’ve been working hard to adapt all of our programmes over the last few months to make sure we can still deliver them safely and to ensure that we are reacting to the situation people find themselves in.

You can find out more about the range of programmes that we have on offer by clicking here. You’ll also find contact details for our teams so that you can make a booking for your school, college or group.

To help relaunch our programmes for the new school year we’ve created some new characters for our Healthy Me team and we’d love you to help us name them all! 

You can include your suggestion for each character on our survey – link below. We’ll go with the most popular!

You can also leave us your email address if you would like someone to contact you about our resilience and well-being programmes for children and young people.

Click here to complete the survey!

‘ChatPal- Your Positive Psychology ChatBot’ is a new mental health app designed to support users’ mental health and wellbeing. Developed by researchers from Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) and Ulster University, the app is available for use 24 hours a day, seven days a week. ChatPal is a research project funded by the EU and the Northern Periphery and Arctic Programme. Action Mental Health is a member of the project team.

The COVID-19 pandemic placed further pressure on already stretched mental health services. Therefore, ChatPal has been launched early to provide support during these unprecedented  times. Helplines and online services have provided increased options for continued access to mental health and wellbeing support. This is of particular concern for people living on their own who may be feeling even more isolated and anxious.

The app can maintain a dialogue with users around how to maintain positive emotions and good physical health, develop relationships, as well as engendering a sense of accomplishment and meaning. This dialogue was developed by a team of Researchers within the Department of Sport, Leisure and Childhood studies at CIT which is based on the well known positive psychology framework called “PERMAH.” 

Dr Raymond Bond, Reader in Data Analytics at Ulster University said, “The ChatPal chatbot app is a computer program that can have a very basic conversation with users, and is developed using a form of artificial intelligence. It augments and extends the reach of traditional existing services without replacing these services.”

David Babington, CEO, Action Mental Health, said “I can really see the need to provide 24/7 digital services that blend and complement our traditional services and our recent experience in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic has given this much greater emphasis. Chatbots are very engaging digital tools that facilitate positive conversations with clients – and that’s what people need – ‘conversation.’ We really do believe that the ChatPal app will be effective in coaching and upskilling people to support self-care and better management of their own wellbeing.”

Dr  Alex Vakaloudis, Senior Researcher & Software Development Team Lead at CIT, commented “The Nimbus Research Centre in CIT hosted an INTERREG NPA ChatPal ‘Chatbot Design’ workshop early in 2020. The Workshop comprised of a variety of CIT academics, staff, and student representatives with mental well-being interests, in order to share their own experiences and insights in a collaborative and creative setting.”

Professor Maurice Mulvenna of Ulster University said, “In our recent survey of over 180 mental health experts and professionals, over 75% of respondents said that they believed that chatbots are important in mental health care and that they would support the use of an app such as ChatPal, mainly for self-care, training and educating or coaching people about mental health and wellbeing.”

The ChatPal app is now available for download on the Google Play Store here: https://bit.ly/ChatPalApp  

For more information please visit: http://chatpal.interreg-npa.eu/

A Co Antrim man who slipped into a “dark place” during a bout of mental ill health is cycling across Northern Ireland’s football grounds to raise funds for Action Mental Health.

Mervyn Canders from Ballyclare, will set off on the sponsored challenge that will cover approximately 350 miles over three days and two nights, commencing at Dixon Park, the home of Ballyclare Comrades FC.

The 37- year-old, who is being accompanied on the route by a number of friends, is also inviting other cyclists and cycling clubs to join them for the event which wheels off on August 10, with expectations that it will be completed by August 12.

The event was originally scheduled to take place on March 23 but had to be cancelled when the nationwide lockdown was imposed.  

The married father of two, then aims to make his way around all 24 Irish premiership and championship clubs grounds in Northern Ireland, hoping to gather up merchandise from each to raffle off, to bolster the sponsorship fund.

“As football is a sport mainly played and supported by men both young and old, there is a stigma attached to men not speaking about their mental health,” he explained.

“I, myself have had mental health issues and have found myself in a dark place. I needed to do something about it so I went and spoke to a counsellor and just by speaking to someone who I didn’t know helped me greatly, to just get things that had been simmering underneath for so long out and off my chest,” he said.

Mervyn played football since childhood up until recent years when work responsibilities precluded his enjoyment of the sport, so he came to cycling late, only pushing pedals on pavement in October 2019.

“The first time I went out on a road bike was really enjoyable and was great for the mind so I decided to tie the two together and I’ve come up with this challenge,” he added.

“Bearing in mind I have never cycled before, up until a few months ago, last October, this will indeed be a big challenge, not only physically but mentally as well, but one I am really looking forward to completing.”

Mervyn said many people have asked him why he has chosen the arduous challenge.

“I have previously suffered from mental health and I am not ashamed to admit that. I wasn’t in a good place and I took the first step and spoke to someone and from that day everything changed for me,” he told them.

“It is heart-breaking to see that people can’t seem to find an alternative, and that speaking out about their mental health and asking for help could potentially save their lives. The increase in especially males ending their own lives is absolutely devastating.

“Life is precious. It’s good to talk so don’t be ashamed and don’t bottle it all up. By just talking to one person and telling them how you feel, it could potentially change everything,” he concluded.

Mervyn has set up a Justgiving page https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/mervyncanders and a number of local businesses have already signalled their support for his fundraising effort.

Anyone wishing to join the cycle should contact Mervyn on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/mervyn.canders

Action Mental Health’s MensSana service is hosting more open Mindset sessions this month. The mental and emotional health and well-being awareness programme is aimed at over 18s, within youth and community settings across the Northern, Western, Belfast and South Eastern Trust areas. Mindset is funded by the PHA. For more information and to sign up visit

A teacher from Eglinton has just parked her bicycle after a staggering 500-mile cycle, raising over £1000 aid of Action Mental Health.

Claire Lynch, who now lives in Glasgow, churned up the miles for the Northern Ireland charity after initial plans to cycle through Paris were thwarted by the coronavirus pandemic.

The 28-year-old cyclist, who previously ran the Belfast Marathon in aid of Action Mental Health, completed her two-wheeled challenge throughout the North West, where she returned to during the lockdown.

Her challenge took her through many picturesque parts of Northern Ireland and the Republic, including Ballyliffin and Greencastle in Donegal, as well as Limavady, Claudy, Portstewart, Portrush, Armoy and Ballycastle in counties Londonderry and Antrim.

“I mostly wanted to do this because I had fallen in love with cycling and wanted to push myself mentally and physically, all the while having a bit of an adventure,” she said.

‘But the pandemic made planning for a trip like this pretty difficult as I didn’t know when travel restrictions would be lifted and I obviously didn’t want to add to any risk of the spread. 

‘After putting the whole thing on hold, one day I had the thought that I could still do the distance of the original plan, even if it was just on home turf. I say ‘just’ but it turns out where I live isn’t too shabby and actually has some really amazing cycle routes.

Choosing Action Mental Health as her beneficiary, Claire went on: ‘According to the NI Health Survey (2015) one in five adults in Northern Ireland will show signs of a mental illness. When matched to 17 other countries, Northern Ireland has the second highest rates of mental ill-health.

‘Sadly, due to the pandemic the work of Action Mental Health may be needed more now than ever.

‘On a personal level, I have experienced periods of poor mental health, mostly in the form of anxiety. Although I haven’t used this organisation I have benefitted from others and feel grateful to these types of services,’ she continued.

‘Alongside this help, cycling has been hugely beneficial in helping to manage my mental health. The feeling of being outside, moving my body and seeing nature always helps to lift my mood. Therefore a cycle challenge in aid of a mental health charity seemed like a great fit.’