Helplink’s second national fundraising campaign, Coldtober has raised over €93,000. #Coldtober is a national sea swimming fundraising challenge for the month of October, where each day almost 500 participants across Ireland went for a sea swim in their local area, or have a 30 second cold shower, to help meet Helpline’ mission; for children, young people and adults to achieve and maintain positive mental health.
Helplink would like to say a huge thank you to all of the participants who got involved, to everyone who donated, held a coffee morning or fundraiser, those who supported us on ssocial media, and also to sponsor Portwest Ireland. The campaign has raised vital funds and awareness for mental health services that are needed now more than ever.
The funding from Coldtober 2021 helped Helplink Mental Health to expand their service substantially. During 2021 in its Galway location, Helplink provided just over 1,200 counselling appointments to children, young people, and adults. In the first six months of 2022 it did the same amount of appointments as it did in the whole year of 2021; a 100% growth in demand. It has hired 16 new counselors, and counting, to keep up with demand.
Founder and CEO of Helplink Mental Health Lochlann Scott said that when they launched Coldtober last year they were hoping for around 100 people to take up the challenge.
“Never in our wildest dreams did we expect nearly 500 people from across 21 counties to take up the challenge. People’s generosity is just amazing and because of that generosity, we are in an even better position to continue to enhance and expand the mental health services we offer to children, young people and adults 7 days a week.”
“We have hired a full time Services Delivery Manager Laura, (who is also a counsellor herself ) to streamline all of our counselling services, and provide support to our counselors. We saw a 20% increase in online and face-to-face appointments following Coldtober 2021, allowing us to help more people through issues such as anxiety, stress, and poor self-esteem.
“In the four months following Coldtober 2021, Art Therapy appointments also increased by 20%. Supporting childrens’ mental health using art materials as an alternative form of expression and helping young adults rediscover their creativity to support their mental health! Coldtober 2021 led to an exceptional 40% increase in couples counselling last year.” he added.
“This service helped couples to identify the patterns leading to problems within their relationships and to move forward together.Following Coldtober 2021’s success, Helplink hired a new therapist who specialises in working with youths aged 13+, which allowed us to expand our youth counselling services, leading to a 43% increase in appointments in the four months following Coldtober 2021 compared with the previous year - helping youths online and face to face.
“Coldtober 2021 also allowed us to hire a new play therapist to meet the demand for play therapy appointments, and has resulted in a whopping 42% increase in the service in the 4 months following Coldtober 2021 compared to the following year. Play Therapy supports children aged 3-12 in Galway and Castlebar and allows children the time and space to work out what may be troubling them, supporting each child to meet their full potential,” said Lochlann Scott.
Fundraising and Marketing Manager Ruth Mc Court said she is over the moon with the reach #Coldtober received this year.
“We had participants take part from Australia, Germany, the UK, and Ireland. We were also delighted to be asked to film a sea-swimming feature for RTE programme; RTE Today with James Patrice through which we received excellent exposure of our services,” she added.
