Action Mental Health is kicking off 2020 with the launch of a new programme dedicated to young people aged 18 to 25.

AMH will today launch its new SPEER service, established in conjunction with Youth Action, offering young people the chance to develop personally and enhance their life choices.

SPEER, a name chosen by the young people themselves, stands for Supportive, Positivity, Equality, Empathy and Respect, ideals they believed should be used to describe the programme.

The main aim of the SPEER programme is to bring together young people aged 18-25 to help enhance and develop their confidence, self-esteem and social interaction through fun activities and accredited training.

Clients of SPEER will be given the opportunity to also undertake courses such as OCN level 2 in Teamwork Skills and OCN level 2 Employability.

Similar to Action Mental Health’s young people’s programmes, Evolve at New Horizons Antrim and Boost, based at New Horizons Fermanagh and Foyle, SPEER will be linked to New Horizons Derriaghy but will be based at the Bridge Community Centre in Lisburn.

Sessions will take place every Wednesday from 11am to 3.30pm, when young people will get the chance to make new friendships with their contemporaries who understand what it is like to live with mental health issues like anxiety or depression.

This projects is offered through AMH New Horizons which are part-funded through the Northern Ireland European Social Fund Programme 2014-2020, the Department for the Economy and the five NI Health & Social Care Trusts.

One young woman who attends Evolve said that as a young person with mental health issues it was hard for her to make friends and to socialise.

“I have met people who have had similar life experiences and have made new friends. Evolve is not all about completing training, but we also go on trips out and do fun activities. We visited Coke-a Cola factory, had a day out at Belfast Christmas Market, cannoed on Lough Neagh and had trips to the cinema.  

“Overall, Action Mental Health is a great support to me. The staff are very understanding and show interest in all clients’ well-being.”

Another young woman who attends Evolve agreed, stating it has been a great lifeline to her when she felt very isolated.

“We do things to build confidence and it’s kind of like team-building and there’s a great atmosphere. The other people in the group understand, because we have all been through similar situations.

“We recently went to an escape room and it was great fun. I would never have done anything like this myself – I would’ve ended up freaking out or something but doing something like this with Evolve really helps you challenge yourself and I’m sure the rest of the group must feel the same,” she said.

“You are never judged if you have a bit of a melt down and you might have to leave for a bit. You can just come back when you are ready and there’s no walk of shame back in, like if it happened at school or work or something.”

Chief Executive of Action Mental Health, David Babington said: “We are delighted to be offering a new branch of our growing services dedicated especially for young people experiencing mental health issues.

“Research has shown that approximately 20% of young people in Northern Ireland are suffering significant mental health problems by the time they are 18 and rates of mental ill-health are estimated to be 25% higher than in other parts of the UK.

“Good mental health is all about feeling positive about yourself, being able to cope with life and the challenges it brings and being able to form and keep relationships, and places like SPEER – like AMH’s Evolve and Boost – are hubs where these ideals are promoted and supported by specialist staff.”

Clients at Action Mental Health’s New Horizons Foyle are ringing in the new year with a host of new qualifications which will herald new beginnings for people who have experienced periods of mental ill health.

Some 75 clients will receive certificates for a variety of vocational, personal development and employability courses, during a special presentation event on Tuesday, January 14.

Action Mental Health New Horizons nine services across Northern Ireland offer clients a comprehensive programme of specialist training courses, tailoring programmes to suit individuals’ personal needs.

These projects are offered through the “Working it Out” project, which is part-funded through the Northern Ireland European Social Fund Programme 2014-2020, the Department for the Economy and the five NI Health & Social Care Trusts.

A number of local public officials will join the celebrations, including a host of employers who will also receive special awards and certificates for their continued support of the charity. Brian McGarvey, Assistant Director of Adult Mental Health Services, Western Trust, will officiate during the event.

Invited guests will also hear from a number of clients who will relate their personal journeys through New Horizons, including some who are moving on to employment and further training.

The event serves as an opener for a host of events planned for clients at the North West service this year.

Chief Executive of Action Mental Health, David Babington said: “We are delighted for our clients who have accomplished a number of goals that many of them would never have imagined they could have achieved when they first entered New Horizons.

“Many clients are very apprehensive when they start, but as feedback attests over and over again, they quickly feel the warmth of the welcome from our specialist, empathetic staff. They make new friends among people who understand just how they feel, and soon they are completing valuable and enjoyable courses which will equip them with both valuable life skills and often, valued employment.”

The AMH New Horizons activities the client participates in are operated through the “Working it Out” project, which is part-funded through the Northern Ireland European Social Fund Programme 2014-2020, the Department for the Economy and the five NI Health & Social Care Trusts.

Action Mental Health welcomes the fact that mental health has been identified as a specific area of focus within the New Decade, New Approach document. We do however have concerns that the commitments remain vague.

Northern Ireland already has a draft Mental Health Action Plan that is resource neutral and is focused on bringing together decisions, already taken. The draft Action Plan has a target for a 10 year Mental Health Strategy, but this in itself needs resources to develop it, aside from the funds needed to adequately deliver it in a way that creates meaningful change to mental health services across Northern Ireland.

It is also vital that funds are secured to deliver the recently published Protect Life 2 strategy for Suicide Prevention.

We repeat our call for a Mental Health Champion to be put in place, someone with the relevant skills, experience and most importantly powers to ensure that we achieve parity for mental health in Northern Ireland.

As always the detail will be key, however we implore our local parties to get back into Government so that we can start taking these vital discussions forward and make real and meaningful improvements to mental health services for the people who need them most.

Action Mental Health’s emotional well-being and resilience building services for children have been supported by £208,000, raised by Danske Bank staff and customers.

Customers and employees have all played a vital role in raising the amazing total during a mutually beneficial partnership over the past three years.

The partnership means over 5,000 NI children and 800 parents and teachers will have benefited from the charity’s Healthy Me programme for children, which does not receive any public funding.

Danske Bank selected Action Mental Health as its charity partner back in 2017 with the objective of raising awareness of mental health and money for the charity’s Healthy Me programme, which aims to promote positive mental health and social and emotional wellbeing in 8-11 year olds.

The programme, which is delivered in Northern Ireland primary schools, explores emotional and mental health, healthy lifestyle choices, and pathways to effective support through imaginative and interactive play and song.

Jonathan Smyth, Fundraising & Communications Manager at Action Mental Health said: “The impact of Danske Bank’s partnership has been phenomenal. Thanks to the incredible fundraising efforts, we will have reached over 5,000 primary school children with our Healthy Me programme.

“We would like to offer our sincere and heartfelt thanks on behalf of everyone who has benefited. The positive impact on the children supported will be felt for years to come.”

As well as fundraising, the partnership has involved education, awareness, and practical and skills-based volunteering, such as Danske employees delivering budgeting sessions to Action Mental Health clients.

Richard Caldwell, Managing Director of Personal Banking & Small Business at Danske Bank added:

“The support for Action Mental Health right across our business has been incredible. Employees have completed all sorts of personal and team fundraising activities – from abseils, zip lines, trekking, marathon running and dragon boat racing, to murder mystery evenings, quizzes and coffee mornings – all to raise funds for Healthy Me.

“With the rates of mental illness in Northern Ireland higher than anywhere else in the United Kingdom, there is a clear need for early intervention and education programmes like Healthy Me. We believe that through investing in the mental health of today’s children, we can help address the issue for future generations, and it’s been a real privilege to support Action Mental Health do just that.

“We would like to thank our colleagues and customers for the generosity they have shown over the last three years.”

Action Mental Health is gearing up for a very busy 2020 with a range of significant new developments and projects.

One of those is Menhir – like an Alexa, Siri or Google Assistant for mental health. More used to giving us weather or traffic updates, Menhir’s artificial intelligence (AI) will be employed to help people’s mental health and well-being.

Menhir is being spearheaded by a collaborative team from Northern Ireland – including Action Mental Health and Ulster University – England, Germany, Italy and Spain.

It is a four-year Research & Development project which aims to identify people at risk of mental ill health and self-harm.

Research is currently ongoing into the analysis of conversational speech, plus emotional and perceptual analysis, to enable the system to identify the mood of a person through interactive conversations.

The system will ask questions of the user, with its inbuilt AI being equipped to gauge and detect emotions through a person’s tone of voice and speech patterns. It will also seek out key risk words for those at particular risk of self-harm, then make an analysis from this data.

If, through all this, a person is deemed at risk, the system will raise a red flag for action. For example, if a client of Action Mental Health, was deemed at risk of self-harm, their key worker would be able to address their issues, and encourage them to seek professional help.

Action Mental Health’s role, in this, the first stage of the project, is to support the clients engaged in the Menhir research. AMH will provide the advice and guidance for Menhir researchers by recruiting people from among clients and those from New Life Counselling.

NLC counsellors will then carry out interviews and will record and analyse the interviews – assessing the language used and the emotions conveyed through their speech in speaking about their mental health.

This data will help to inform the IT professionals in Menhir to develop the artificial intelligence behind the AI device that people will have in their homes.

For further information visit Menhir’s website http://menhir-project.eu/index.php/about/

A troupe of loyal Action Mental Health staff have been rewarded for their dedication to the charity by receiving long-service awards.

Fulfilling a variety of roles across Action Mental Health, the group includes Roslyn Young, who joined the charity 25 years ago. Roslyn is an Employment Officer with AMH New Horizons and is based at New Horizons Newry and Mourne.

Fellow Newry and Mourne colleague, Project Administrator, Andrea McCaul received her 15-year long-service award in recognition of her time employed with the charity. The pair recently received their long-service awards from Peter Fitsimmons, chairman of Action Mental Health

Conferring the awards, Mr Fitzsimmons said the other long-standing personnel have provided excellent support for AMH clients.

“They are passionate about supporting initiatives to improve mental health and well-being in our community,” he added.

Other staff members who have demonstrated similar longevity of 15 years with Action Mental Health include Jenny Lyness, Skills Coach with AMH New Horizons Belfast; Catherine Clarson and Alan Telford, both Administrative Officers at AMH Central; Alison Reid, Client Development Co-ordinator and John Sim, Skills Coach, both from New Horizons Craigavon and Banbridge;

Leona Wright, Project Administrator in New Horizons Foyle and Aileen McClenaghan, Skills Coach in AMH Promote, also received their 15-year long-service awards.

Although the News Letter and Action Mental Health’s campaign on loneliness draws to a close this week, the work of the mental health charity continues all year, offering services to people experiencing periods of mental ill health – and often, as the features have shown, loneliness.

In this final installment, we look at recent research on loneliness and offer tips to combat its effects. And as the campaign has shown, Action Mental Health has helped people with mental health issues navigate the accompanying burden of loneliness. If you would like to support this work why not consider joining AMH’s Light Up Christmas appeal 2019? To request a fundraising pack contact AMH’s Fundraising Team on [email protected] or call 028 9182 8494.

---

Research by The Children Society’s found that children who have no friends have low levels of well-being, with over half reporting low life satisfaction and low levels of happiness.

The Society found that one-in-five children aged seven to 12 say they are lonely sometimes or often, while those aged eight to 15 found that ‘seeing friends’ made the biggest difference in how they connected to others. Children who ‘never or hardly ever’ saw their friends had significantly lower well-being than those who saw their friends ‘most days or every day’.

However, creating opportunities for children to play and spend times with friends, family and people of the same age can help address feelings of loneliness. Talking to teachers can also be useful so that they can ensure that lonely children are included in school activities.

Parents who are lonely have a negative effect on their children, impacting their social competence, motivation to learn, and even their academic skills. If a child is raised in a socially isolated family, the risk of the child becoming chronically lonely increases, as one Mumsnet user detailed: “I have no idea how to socialise, I never got the chance as a child and had a solitary teen/early adulthood and get very anxious in crowds and talking to strangers. My way of dealing with my anxiety is to go quiet and introvert.”

If this sense of loneliness extends into old age, this can exacerbate the isolation typical of the elderly, especially the over-75s who make up some of the loneliest groups in society. It is this older generation who can suffer social isolation, low quality of life and poor health.

But there is help, among all ages and social demographics, to combat loneliness, including the Five Ways to Well-Being, principles promoted by Action Mental Health, and by the charity’s supporter and collaborator, Professor Nichola Rooney, Chair of the Division of Psychology, British Psychological Society (NI).

Researched and developed by the New Economics Foundation, the Five Ways to Well-Being equips people with steps to promote their own well-being – and prime among them is to ‘Connect’. In her assessment of the Five Ways, Professor Rooney contends: “No matter what age we are, probably the most important factor in improving our psychological health and well-being is our relationships and connectedness with other people. A huge amount of research has shown the positive effects of relationships on our physical health (eg. blood pressure, cardiac illness, cancer) as well as our mental health (eg. reduced levels of stress and depression).

“As a child, having even one caring available adult can impact positively on the rest of our lives in terms of our mental and physical health, while poor attachment experiences are associated with lower educational achievement and increased likelihood of offending behaviour. As adolescents, peer relationships and being able to identify positively with a group has also been shown to improve mental health and reduce self harming behaviours.

As adults positive relationships have been shown to extend our life and buffer individuals from negative effects of stress.

“Therefore, one of the most important things we can do to protect and promote our mental health is to find ways of connecting with other people and of developing positive relationships.”

The other Ways to Well-Being can further help to thwart loneliness if done in the company of others.

‘Being Active’ has been shown to enhance mood, regulate emotion, and maintain optimum bodily functions. In particular, physical activity has consistently been associated with improvements in self-esteem, self-concept, depressive symptoms, and anxiety and stress. In addition physical activity has a pronounced impact on attention, with increasing evidence of its positive interaction with improved cognitive functioning and better sleep patterns.”

The third way is to ‘Take Notice’. Professor Rooney says that taking time out to relax and notice the environment is shown to be effective in managing anxiety.

“As with meditation, there is a strong and growing evidence base exists for the use of mindfulness-based interventions to prevent relapse in major depression and for the self-management of chronic physical health conditions (e.g. pain). Simple approaches to achieving these aims are going for a walk and noticing nature and trying to be aware of where we are and what we are doing.”         

If you ‘Keep Learning’ you can reap manifold benefits. “Learning enhances brain function by promoting the growth of neurons and pathways associated with learning new skills.  Achieving learning goals improves self-esteem and confidence as well as enhancing overall well-being. Learning in a group or class provides opportunities to make new connections and build new relationships which is an added benefit.”

Finally, ‘to Give’ not only helps others but hasmany personal benefits, as it is often associated with appreciating and valuing that we have something to give. “It gives us a chance to count our blessings and reframe our lives in comparison to those less fortunate. Taking control and making a conscious decision to do something for others improves our mental health and allows us to appreciate the good in ourselves and others. Volunteering is also a good way to get connected and build relationships,” she adds.

Professor Rooney tells us that it is not the number of relationships that we have that is important, but rather the quality of our relationships and how lonely we feel. “We all know that we can be in a very crowded room but still feel lonely. Indeed, our feelings of loneliness can impact on our health.” She refers to an American study from 2017 which looked at the association between loneliness and health.

It found that substantial evidence suggests that feeling lonely – regardless of whether we actually are socially isolated based on our number of relationships – is bad for our health affecting our odds of developing heart disease and other chronic conditions. A new study has extended this literature by showing that feelings of loneliness, but not levels of social isolation, seem to increase the toll of acute illness, in this case by worsening the subjective experience of having a cold.

Research by Angie LeRoy at the University of Houston and Rice University, and published in Health Psychology showed how understanding loneliness could be useful for helping doctors understand their patients’ different experiences of short-term illnesses. It also provides yet more evidence for why interventions aimed at reducing loneliness need to focus on quality not quantity of social interaction – after all, it’s perfectly possible to feel intensely alone in a crowded room.

The study involved infecting volunteers with viral nasal drops. Each day, the participants answered questions about their mood and the severity of eight different cold symptoms, from congestion to chills. They also filled out a loneliness questionnaire at the start, which tapped their subjective sense of loneliness (typical items included “In general, how often do you feel left out?”), and an objective measure of their social isolation based on the number of people they had contact with every two weeks.

Feeling lonely didn’t affect risk of infection by the cold virus, but of the participants who were infected, the more lonely they said they felt, the worse they reported their cold symptoms to be. This remained true when factoring out the influence of negative mood, which was also associated with experiencing more severe symptoms. Social isolation, measured objectively, was not associated with the subjective severity of cold symptoms. “Put simply,” the researchers said, “lonelier people feel worse when they are sick than less lonely people”.

For more on tackling loneliness, visit https://www.campaigntoendloneliness.org/

Action for Children has listed the following for further help to fight loneliness:

Childline – offers advice on loneliness and isolation for people under the age of 19. You can avail of their help for free by calling 0800 1111 or visit their dedicated page on overcoming loneliness at https://www.childline.org.uk/

Become – the charity for children in care, have a phone line and online advice.

Muslim Youth Helpline – staffed by and provided for young Muslims in the UK.

The Mix – support for under 25s on any issue from housing to bereavement to alcohol.

Young Stonewall – offer advice for young LGBT+ people.

Switchboard LGBT+ – offer a dedicated helpline for LGBT+ people.

Anna Harvey is an articulate young woman with a supportive family who once competed nationally as a gymnast. She was studying for her A-levels and had great friends too. But just a few years ago the 22-year-old felt so low she made an attempt on her life.

She ended up in hospital, receiving emergency psychiatric care and was released after a couple of weeks, unsure of what to do next.

Unable to attend school to finish her A-levels she felt isolated, excluded and lonely.

But then she was told about Action Mental Health, and ever since, Anna has begun, slowly but surely, to regain her life and look to the future with renewed positivity.

Anna can’t pin down any one defining thing that prompted her mental health issues, which surfaced at around the age of 15 or 16. But once caught in the maelstrom of anxiety and depression her studies began to suffer.

She commenced her A levels but just as she was about to take her end of year exams in lower sixth she became very unwell. Despite her desire to resume her studies, circumstances prevented her from doing so.

Feeling isolated from the daily buzz of school life she was overwhelmed by loneliness and its grip was relentless.

“I felt it very unjust that I wasn’t able to return to school and when I left I felt extremely out of the loop and so excluded but I didn’t know if half of it was in my own head. That was a very lonely time for me.

“I was lucky because I have a great family and a great group of friends from school but despite that I still felt real loneliness. It’s hard to describe, but it makes you feel like an imposter, like I shouldn’t have felt like this at my age. That’s why loneliness can become so insidious, and while it’s well-documented that old people suffer from loneliness, it’s not so much expected that a younger person like me should suffer from loneliness.”

Reflecting on the glut of information technology that keeps the younger generation connected today she said: “It’s almost a bit of a paradox really: we have the most access to means of communication, compared to old people, but it’s mostly going the opposite way.”

Anna wasn’t physically alone, living with her parents, brother and sister, but when her mental state was in a state of tumult and uncertainty “I pushed everyone away and the loneliness played a part in it,” she added.

Following her lowest point, which prompted her brief stint in emergency psychiatric care she was back at home, wondering what her next step would be, feeling aimless and lonely.

That’s when she was referred to Action Mental Health’s New Horizons.

“I was a bit sceptical that it would even help me, but my first impressions were completely wrong because it has been incredibly helpful to me,” she said. 

“They put me through a number of courses and I’ve done quite a few now and I particularly enjoyed the photography course.

“New Horizons also gave me the chance to do an interview with Cool FM radio for their Cash for Kids (fundraising campaign). I was petrified and my voice was shaking but I did it, and was so grateful for that opportunity.”

Anna was later directed to Evolve, a group specially dedicated to young people, based at New Horizons Antrim, and has pushed herself to participate in activities far outside her comfort zone

“We do things to build confidence and it’s kind of like team-building and there’s a great atmosphere. The other people in the group understand, because we have all been through similar situations.

“We recently went to an escape room and it was great fun. I would never have done anything like this myself – I would’ve ended up freaking out or something but doing something like this with Evolve really helps you challenge yourself and I’m sure the rest of the group must feel the same,” she said.

“You are never judged if you have a bit of a melt down and you might have to leave for a bit. You can just come back when you are ready and there’s no walk of shame back in, like if it happened at school or work or something.”

Today, Anna admits she still experiences ups and downs, though now she gets the help she needs if her mood goes low.

And now learning to drive, Anna is looking forward and envisaging a time when she might return to education and ultimately work in the area of mental health.

The courses Anna is currently undertaking are part of New Horizons’ “Working it Out” project, which is part-funded through the Northern Ireland European Social Fund Programme 2014-2020, the Department for the Economy and the five NI Health & Social Care Trusts. New Horizons are among the many AMH projects which could benefit if you sign up to the charity’s Light Up Christmas appeal 2019. To request a fundraising pack contact AMH’s Fundraising Team on [email protected] or call 028 9182 8494. Thank you.

Action Mental Health’s Evolve programme, delivered in partnership with Youth Action, brings together young people aged 18 to 25 to help enhance and develop their confidence, self-esteem and social interaction, through fun activities and accredited training.