November 5, 2010
Mental Health Service
Midlands Community Mental Health Initiative is launched
Westmeath Examiner (Wednesday, 3 November 2010)
The Midlands Area HSE and its partners came together on Monday last to launch a new community mental health initiative for the region, the aim of which is to enhance how mental health services are delivered in Westmeath and its neighbouring counties. The new initiative comes as a result of a full assessment of community mental health promotion programmes in the Midlands.
Irish Daily Mirror (Wed, 3 Nov 2010)
Politicians have been bombarded with thousands of emails from people concerned about mental health cuts in the budget. More than 6,000 messages have been sent To TDs and Senators as part of the Healthrisk.ie campaign in support of protecting services in next month’s budget. Amnesty International’s Karol Balfe said it is essential that politicians are made aware of people’s concerns around mental health cuts.
Irish Daily Star (Monday, 1 November 2010)
Irish funding is languishing ear the bottom of the European league table in terms of our spending on mental health. According to a European Commission report, funding below five per cent of total health expenditure is too low, given that mental health problems contribute to more than 20 per cent of disease burden in Europe.
Suicide Prevention
600 receive suicide awareness training
Evening Echo (Tuesday, 2 November 2010)
Cobh-based suicide prevention group Breaking the Silence have had a busy year so far. The group received funding during the year from the AIB Better Ireland Programme, the Community Foundation for Ireland, the National Lottery and the people of Cobh, enabling them to train about 600 people in the areas of suicide awareness, intervention and prevention and deliver two Safe Talk Training Programmes to Irish Naval Service Staff on the ship as they made their voyage out to sea on a recent tour to South America.
Irish Examiner wins suicide investigation awards
Irish Examiner (Saturday, 30 October 2010)
The Irish Examiner has collected another two awards for its investigation into suicide. The newspaper won the best over- all prize, An Duais Mhor, at the Irish Healthcare Awards and also collected the prize for the Best Public Health Initiative. The 20-page supplement, accompanied by a Let's Talk About Suicide advice and information booklet, tried to put a human face on a growing crisis which claims more than 500 lives each year. More than 250,000 copies of the booklet were distributed to support groups nationally.
