Here is what the Hot Spot Youth Café, Youghal did to get their flag!
''mental health talk by Reach Out Ireland.
Fenella Murphy along with her colleagues Gillian and Tara met with the members of the Hot Spot Youth Café. These young people are aged between 13 and 14 and are mostly first years from the local secondary schools. This is the second time Reach out Ireland have been to Youghal. They spoke at the mental health week which was organised in Nagle House last February however their target audience at that event was older teenagers.
Following our promotion of positive mental health within the Youth Centre we are hoping to receive a flag which we can display outside the building ' Nagle House' showing the people of Youghal that The Hot spot youth café is an area where good mental health is paramount.
Fenella and her colleagues engaged the young people with an insightful presentation including a video from when they met Andrew Morley (aka Spencer from Home & Away) he spoke about how he gets through the tough times.
Finally the girls finished with an inspiring activity called 'Note to Self' a postcard, where the young people wrote a positive note to themselves which Fenella will post back to the young people's home addresses.
We also conducted a Green Ribbon 'Start the conversation night' where we discussed mental health.
we talked about how experiencing a mental health problem is simply part and parcel of the ups and downs of teenage life and can happen to any of us but the silence around mental health stops people seeking help and makes the experience of being unwell much harder. It doesn’t have to be this way.
The chances are that you or someone you know will, go through a tough time at some point so why not talk about it and learn how to support each other? This is what we did. When the young people showed their support for another young person we gave them a green ribbon pin.
We engaged the young people by telling them that you don’t need to be an expert to start talking about mental health or have all the answers. Sometimes the most helpful thing you can do is to let someone know that you are there for them and simply listen.
Although you can’t solve someone else’s problems, knowing the basics about how to support someone can really help you – and them.''
BIG THANK YOU TO THOSE INVOLVED AND CONGRATS ON RECEIVING THE SUPPORTING POSITIVE MENTAL HEALTH FLAG!