The why?
In Ireland, over 400 people each year end their lives by suicide and we have one of the highest suicide rates in Europe among 15-24 year olds.
It’s up us, as a community, to create an open and accepting society in which people don’t feel ashamed to talk about their mental health issues.
We can make a good start on this by being more honest about all of our own mental difficulties, big or small.
The Goal?
Our goal is to change attitudes towards mental health through fun, by creating an alternative means of socialising that encourages openness and honest conversation, where we don’t rely so heavily on alcohol as a social crutch.
I think that talking is the first step in the right direction and while what we are doing might not immediately “cure” people of suicidal thoughts or diagnosed conditions like depression, schizophrenia, bi-polar etc., we do hope to change the mainstream attitude towards mental health issues so that the majority of us who suffer with relatively minor mental health difficulties can acknowledge them as such and begin to talk about them, while making those that suffer more severely feel more accepted within society as a whole.
The method?
How we hope to do this is by working with local mental health charities, support services and the HSE to organise charity fundraiser events.
Some more talk-focused, some more activity-focused and some more party-focused, but always with an emphasis on community, craic and creativity.
The idea is to build a community around the events, creating a bottom up approach to tackling our mental health problem here in Galway.
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What will the next event entail?
- 16th March
- Upstairs in McCambridges on Shop Street
- Doors 9-10pm
- Tickets €10, Available on Eventbrite, all proceeds to Cosáin community wellness
- Food provided by dough bros
- Talk given by author and life coach Jim hickey
- Live music by local musician, Nate Furey
- Art by local wood carver, Tom Taffe, who will be giving away one of his pieces on the night
- Paisiún DJs will top the night off for those that want to hang around a bit later
