Young people are being invited to share their views on mental health services and supports in Ireland, as part of a youth mental health conference in autumn.
YOULEAD – a mental health research group at NUIG, and SPUNOUT.ie, are looking for people living in Ireland aged between 18 and 25 to submit a word, a few sentences or a story about mental health services in the country.
These submissions will form part of Ireland’s first Youth Mental Health Conference at the beginning of October.
The conference will consist of a series of online lunchtime events from 5-9 October, leading up to World Mental Health Day on Saturday, 10 October.
Throughout the conference national and international experts will be discussing their understanding of the mental health needs of young people, and the resources young people need.
During the week, YOULEAD will dedicate time during one of the lunchtime sessions to presenting the experiences of young people using mental health services/supports in Ireland, with the aim of providing a platform for young people to share their experiences with others.
The goal is to showcase multiple voices of young people, reflecting their experience of mental health services. A number of submissions will be performed by actors with the performance being shown online during the conference.
As this is a creative piece that will be performed, artistic license might be used. So, words, sentences or quotes, combined with other pieces, may be used to form a cohesive artistic piece.
Professor Gary Donohoe, Established Professor of Psychology at NUI Galway, said that a crucial element for developing the mental health services needing by young people is knowing what they think and what they have experienced.
“This is as much to identify the positives we can build on as the negatives we should address,” he said. “We’d like to give as many young people as possible a chance to share their experiences with us.”
Submissions can include, but is not limited to: What is/was your experience of mental health services/supports? What would your ideal mental health service look like? What advice would you give to someone trying to access support services in Ireland?
