Action Mental Health and New Life Counselling have announced an exciting new partnership. From 1^st April 2018, the two local charities have created a new Group Structure which will see the two well-known local organisations come together to provide a more integrated service for communities throughout Northern Ireland.

Both organisations have a history of working through partnerships to deliver better outcomes for their clients and this initiative builds on that experience and expertise within both charities.

The purpose of this initiative is to enhance effectiveness in meeting the needs of service users, clients and communities and ensure resources are focused to best effect so that they improve the long-term sustainability of both organisations and their services.

Under the agreement, New Life Counselling will become a subsidiary of Action Mental Health but it will continue to be a separate charitable company with its own name, board, contracts and employees.

The organisations will be actively engaged in a working process over the coming months and the existing Joint Working Group, made up of Board members from both organisations, will continue to lead and support the process of aligning the two organisations.

Both organisations rely heavily on the support and encouragement of all their stakeholders and as such will provide regular updates on any further developments.

This year, for the very first time, Action Mental Health is inviting you to host a Great Big Purple Picnic during Mental Health Awareness Week.

Between 14th and 20th May 2018 we want everyone to get involved, to help raise awareness of positive mental health and also to raise vital funds to help support our work across Northern Ireland.

Most of all we want you to have a bit of fun while doing it.

We’re asking schools, businesses, community groups, families and friends to get their picnic hampers and blankets out and join in the fundraising fun. Download your fundraising & information pack below.

Schools  Corporates & Community Groups

The Great Big Purple Picnic is one of the many initiatives organised by AMH to help raise awareness of positive mental health and also vital funds to help support our work across Northern Ireland.

The focus for the Great Big Purple Picnic is quite simply about giving people a way to improve their knowledge of positive mental health and also a way to improve their mental wellbeing.

By hosting your very own Great Big Purple Picnic you and your guests will be actively engaging in the Five Ways to Wellbeing: connecting with those around you; being active, by choosing one of Northern Ireland’s picturesque settings to host your picnic and combining it was a nice walk; taking notice, by just taking time out to enjoy the moment; keep learning, by thinking of healthy food options for your picnic to help maintain a healthy body for a healthy mind; and by giving the funds you raise to AMH which aims to change the lives of those living with mental ill-health and promote resilience and wellbeing to future generations.

All you have to do is to choose a date, a venue – indoors or outdoors, in the garden, at home, school or work – and then invite your friends to your Great Big Purple Picnic. But don’t forget to think purple: whether it’s purple bunting, purple picnic blankets, purple wigs or purple drinks, it’s up to you!

Download one of our fundraising & information packs (see below), it’s full of ideas and information on how to organise your Great Big Purple Picnic. In the packs you’ll find hints and tips as well as promotional materials such as posters to advertise your picnic, printed placemats and purple bunting to use at your picnic and also materials to help you create your own collection boxes.

Be sure to get in touch and let us know what you have planned – simply fill in the registration form included in the pack and return it to us by emailing [email protected]. If you have any questions or queries, please do call us on 028 9182 8494.

Thank you for your support!

Download your pack now.

Schools     Corporates & Community Groups

A digital hub, centred on mental health education, support and information has been developed by the Northern Area Mental Health Initiative (‘The Initiative’).

The digital mental health hub was created to complement and reinforce the learning provided through The Initiative’s free awareness raising workshops.

The Northern Area Mental Health Initiative is an exciting project led by Cookstown and Western Shores Area Network (CWSAN), in partnership with Action Mental Health and Nexus NI. The Initiative offers free mental health awareness and resilience training, internet safety, sexual abuse and exploitation education to children and young people aged from 8 to 25 in schools, youth clubs and through key contacts such as teachers, youth group leaders and parents groups.

Research has shown that approximately 20% of young people in Northern Ireland are suffering significant mental health problems by the time they are 18[i] and rates of mental ill health are estimated to be 25% higher than in other parts of the UK[ii]. The hub will not only provide a range of resources and coping strategies for children and young people so that they can access help when they need it, but will also be a platform for young people to have their voice heard and impact on policy decisions.

The hub offers age appropriate platforms, through a bespoke website, for young people, their families and the professionals who support them. Each platform gives information on how to look after mental health & wellbeing, how to access local help when needed and provides a range of resources including tips and coping strategies. A wide range of local and national information on services across Northern Ireland with a particular focus for those living in the Northern Zone is also provided.

Additional digital tools are provided on the hub for young people to have their voice heard, take part in surveys, lobby local commissioners and policy makers, create youth quakes, build resilience walls and participate in innovative social media platforms to inform service development. Young people will also be able to hear from their peers how to cope with life’s ups and downs, on issues such as bullying, relationships, negative influences of social media, risks of online grooming/sexual exploitation, suicidal ideation, sexual orientation, and social instability.

Pauline Flanagan, Project Manager for The Initiative says

“I am delighted that we have been able to launch our website. It brings together a wide range of invaluable information around young people’s mental health and is designed to be a straightforward way for children, young people and those who support them to access information on mental health and other services in the local area.  My vision is that it will become a central, go-to hub which young people, teachers, parents, professionals and decision makers can access for current information that they can rely on. We will continue to develop the hub by working alongside children, young people, professionals and partners so that the platform content continues to evolve based on local need, discussions, and with young people in mind”.

A spokesperson from the Executive Office said,

“The Northern Area Mental Health Initiative has received almost £1million funding from the Social Investment Fund under the Delivering Social Change framework to promote positive mental health and well-being, early intervention and pathways to appropriate support should mental health problems arise in 8 to 25 year olds. With the breadth of information out there for Children, Young People and their Key Contacts, it can be difficult for them to access appropriate information and resources for their target group. The Initiative’s website brings all that information into one online information hub and provides an important gateway for mental health and support. It is great to see how the Social Investment Fund projects are making a real difference for the better to the lives of children and young people.”

The Northern Area Mental Health Initiative website can be viewed here.

If you would like to book a workshop for your school or community group, visit the website, email [email protected] or call 028 9442

[i] http://www.niccy.org/media/2810/niccy-scoping-paper-mental-health-review-apr-2017.pdf

[ii][ii] http://www.niccy.org/media/2810/niccy-scoping-paper-mental-health-review-apr-2017.pdf

Action Mental Health has enlisted its first official walker for this year’s Belfast City Marathon. An employee within the charity, 34-year-old Emma McCabe (pictured here) from Belfast, recently took up the post as Employment Specialist with AMH’s Individual Placement Support Programme.

Emma has decided to walk for AMH to help raise awareness of mental ill health and will be joined by her brother-in-law, who will be walking for another charity close to his heart. Emma is no stranger to pounding the pavement, and as a member of #ParkWalk, regularly gets her walking gear for her nearby weekly Saturday morning park run.

“I enjoy walking and see it as a way to keep healthy, not only physically, but mentally too,” she said.

Her love of the activity has helped her lose weight and some day she hopes to run the Belfast City Marathon as part of a relay team.

Previous fundraising efforts have included a 5k walk for Pieta House, the suicide and self-harm centre based in variations locations throughout the Republic of Ireland, for which Emma has walked for the past two years.

Her training really got under way recently in rather exotic climes, when she visited family in Australia. She took the chance to flex her legs to gear up for the May event while escaping the recent snowy weather courtesy of the Beast from the East. Now she’s back at home, her faithful dog Milo keeps her to her training schedule, which is also livened up fitness dance sessions.

Emma commented on her reasons for choosing her charity employer to run for.

“The more awareness around mental illness the better and walking for AMH will help to achieve this. As one in five adults in Northern Ireland will show signs of mental illness it is an issue that could affect everyone, so I would like to take the opportunity to highlight the great work AMH do.”

Emma aims to raise £25 for every mile walked, which would bring her up to her target of £200.

“I’d like to raise more for the latter miles as I’m sure these will be the hardest to complete,” she said. “People can sponsor a particular mile or give a general donation for the full event. All donations welcome.”

Action Mental Health’s Events Officer Callum Clark is delighted to welcome Emma into the growing stable of fundraisers. People like her raise much needed funds to help the charity provide services for people of all ages living with a range of mental health issues as well as promoting positive mental health across Northern Ireland.

“Having people like Emma don the purple jersey for Action Mental Health means so much to us. As a local charity we rely heavily on people’s generous fundraising efforts to help provide our services and we certainly hope many more people follow Emma’s lead and nominate Action Mental Health as their beneficiary for the Belfast City Marathon 2018.”

If you have been inspired by Emma’s story, why not sign up for the Belfast City Marathon to run, walk or relay on behalf of Action Mental Health.

Sign up at http://www.belfastcitymarathon.com/ and get in touch with our fundraising team on [email protected]

The generous pupils and staff at Royal School Dungannon have raised over £1100 in the past two years Action Mental Health.

This week the school presented AMH with a cheque for £746.35 after participating in a number of the charity’s MensSana programmes which promote positive mental health and resilience to all ages, including primary and secondary level school children.

The school has and continues to avail of the service which also provides workshops for parents and teachers to further support pupils’ emotional well-being. The workshops are provided free of charge to participants. The school’s generous gift follows a similar gesture last year when it raised £377.90 for AMH, bringing their total fundraising efforts to £1124.25. The school raised the money through a variety of activities and events, including hosting a breakfast following the school’s sixth form formal and non-uniform days.

Cherith Edgar from Action Mental Health’s MensSana team said: “We are delighted to receive such a generous boost to the MensSana programme, for the second year running from Royal School Dungannon. “The school has an excellent pastoral care ethos and we are very happy to support this by providing the many activities and workshops offered through MensSana. We look forward to our continued partnership working with The Royal School Dungannon.  Please contact us if you are interested in booking workshops for your school or community group.”

AMH New Horizons, through it’s Working It Out project, offers clients the opportunity to try work placements.  Heather tells us how she is getting on.

My first day here in AMH in Foyle, I think I had at least one or two panic attacks.  As I settled in, I found that I was very aware that I was happy to stay here.  At the beginning of my second year, one thing cropped up that I wasn’t expecting – work placement!  AMH can become this little bubble world and so the idea of doing something both scared and excited me.

Working with Valerie (AMH Employment Officer) made things easier as she explained the process of applying for a placement and helped me to fill in the application form.  It was a process I don’t think I was ready for to be honest.  After some searching, discussion and phone calls, Valerie found me a placement at LCDI (Limavady Community Development Initiative) at Roe Valley Hospital.  Once a week I travel to Limavady where I teach a craft class at the Head Trauma Daycare Unit.  Crafts have always seemed to be a passion of mine and getting to share that passion in my placement has been a complete joy.  My art teacher in high school had told my father that I was too slow to do art GCSE.  Ha! Take that art teacher!

Valerie helped me to go through the process of meeting my clients and has visited me in my placement.  She’s always ready to have a quick word to see how I’m getting on and chasing me to ensure I have done everything needed to get my placement started.  I wish her the very best in the future as she is leaving us, but also wish Laura the very best now she is here.  Don’t be afraid of change.  I have found that my placement is fantastic both for me and for whatever I hope to achieve in the future.

This project is part-funded through the Northern Ireland European Social Fund Programme 2014-2020 and the Department for the Economy.

ACTION Mental Health has welcomed the Secretary of State’s reported budgetary commitment of £30million towards Northern Ireland’s beleaguered mental health and wellbeing services.

The news follows a visit to Westminster last month by Together for You, a group of Northern Ireland’s leading mental health charities – including Action Mental Health.  The delegation also included The Mental Health Foundation, Royal College of Psychiatrists and Ulster University.

They were highlighting the crisis in mental health in Northern Ireland which has resulted in more people dying by suicide since the Belfast Agreement than were killed during the Troubles.

Action Mental Health Chief Executive David Babington issued a cautious welcome for the funding boost but said ambiguity surrounded the level of funding to be allocated to mental health. He noted that the original figure was to be £50m, but that yesterday’s reported figure for mental health fell short of that by £20m.

He said the uncertainty highlighted the need for a clear strategic plan for mental health and moreover for a mental health champion to steer services and investment to the areas most in need.

“In principal it is great that mental health pressures are being recognised, but we need clarity. Last month we went to Westminster to meet MPs to discuss among other things the £50m promised to Northern Ireland’s mental health services.

“We need to urgently meet with the Secretary of State in the absence of a functioning local executive, to discuss how this funding is allocated and other strategic priorities in order to continue this momentum.

“Obviously £50m isn’t going to cure everything but it is a start in the right direction and what we need is a clear and transparent ten year strategic plan and also a mental health champion to oversee this.”