A successful personal developement programme designed initially to help the homeless in Galway is now available to the public.
On The Road Again provides a unique, custom-designed service designed to improve mental health and physical well-being.
Programme director Paul Fallon says the results help restore and instill positive self-esteem, and empower clients to take control of their own lives for the better.
OTRA originally started as a programme catering for clients of the homeless services, he says.
“Research showed us that there is a large crossover with these clients and mental health issues and this led us to reach out to the mental health services and invite them to refer their patients to us.
“We were told that for every one person that the mental health services treat, there are another eight to 10 people going undiagnosed as they are not presenting for various reasons, such as stigma, fear and economics. With this in mind, we have now opened the programme to the general public.”
Fallon says while everyone knows that exercise is good for you, why then are illnesses such as depression continuing to rise. “How come more and more people are taking their own lives, obesity is almost at epidemic proportions, along with all the side affects such as diabetes and heart disease? Why, when there are multitudes of all sorts of clubs out there, open to all, are people getting heavier, sicker and less fit?
Motivation, he says, may be a cliché, but, the hardest part is getting out the door.
“As our first client back in 2010 put it; ‘They kept telling me that I had to get fit, but they never told me how’.”
OTRA has offices in Galway city. For further information contact Paul Fallon 086-8755129, Unit 9A, Cathedral Building, Lower Abbeygate St, Galway.
