Speech at Please Talk 5th Anniversary student event
27th April 2012
Dia dhaoibh a chairde. Go raibh maith agaibh as an gcuireadh agus as an bhfáilte.
I am delighted to be here with you all today to celebrate the 5th anniversary of PleaseTalk and I am grateful to Barry Colfer for inviting me to speak at your event.
I admire and congratulate Barry, Jonny, Ronan and Viv on their initiative in developing this Please Talk Programme in UCD in 2007. This initiative, which came about following a number of student deaths by suicide, has encouraged many students to be more open about their problems and be more aware of when to seek help. Of course, this initiative would not be as successful without the support and commitment of students themselves, their representative bodies, academics, staff of the Colleges throughout Ireland and the HSE’s National Office for Suicide Prevention, which provided funding. As a result, this programme has been developed in all the Universities and is now being developed in Northern Ireland. I wish to congratulate and commend each and every one of you, but particularly those founding students who had the initiative and values to turn concern and care into a practical response – found Please Talk.
It has been said that mental health problems affect one in three students. That is why Please Talk plays such a crucial role. Please Talk is now active in 35 university and college campuses and providing support and information to almost a quarter of a million students.
There are many sources of stress that can affect young people. The transition to college life and all it entails, from perhaps living away from home for the first time - what can be a liberating experience for some can be highly stressful for others. The pressure of exams is another great stressor in many young people’s lives, and the pressure to choose and land in a career. As a nation we have experienced many changes both economically and socially in recent years. We need to acknowledge the strains many people, including our young people, may be experiencing for the first time in coping with a very difficult economic environment and lack of certainty, perhaps at an unprecedented level, about the future.
With its motto ‘Talking is a sign of strength, not of weakness’ Please Talk attempts to break down the negative attitudes and beliefs about help seeking, and to combat the ‘help-negation effects’ of suicidal thinking, both of which been associated with low help seeking behaviour that can lead to suicide. In this, the Please Talk approach is truly ‘evidence based’ and I’d like to particularly commend that the approach originated due to the compassion of four young men. There is abundant evidence that young men are both more likely to engage in risk behaviours that can lead to self harm, and less likely than young women to seek help. Knowing this, the fact that it was four young men who took the important first steps to set up Please Talk to combat suicide and promote help seeking is particularly noteworthy. Today, I know that Please Talk is collaborating closely with and being mentored by both the HSE professionals and those in Inspire Ireland, and I’d also like to congratulate those professionals for engaging and nurturing the truly original response, the empathy and leadership of these young people.
Please Talk and other mental health promotion initiatives can help people build their own resilience which helps them deal with the inevitable difficult days that attend us in life. We cannot seek to have a life free of these challenges: the richness of life is in its myriad of experiences, emotions and opportunities. However, it is through interconnectedness, and through solidarity with each other that we can see beyond the sometimes overwhelming challenges, enjoy life more and navigate future stressors better.
During my Presidential campaign, I committed to actively and vigorously promoting positive measures to support mental health amongst all our citizens and to support those working to break down negative attitudes and discrimination towards people with mental health problems.
I have spoken of the need for a new and vibrant citizenship that can vindicate such values as solidarity, community, democracy, justice freedom and equality and give them practical expression. At the heart of this is the right of each citizen to participate in society and to have the opportunity to develop their personal and social selves in conditions of freedom and communal solidarity. Please Talk is not only a practical expression active citizenship, your work is an expression of communal solidarity, it evidences a respect for the life of a person as having a shared public value, a shared value to society at large.
I welcome all of the initiatives that are aimed at improving the mental health and well-being of young people. An example of one of these initiatives is the Jigsaw programme, developed by Headstrong, which aims to make mental health services more accessible to those who need them. Jigsaw creates safe spaces in communities where young people can access a wide range of mental health supports for free. It works by engaging young people, organisations, families and other support agencies in the community, so that they are all better able to respond to the mental health and well being needs of young people aged from 12 to 25.
Jigsaw is up and running in 5 counties – (Galway, Roscommon, Kerry Meath and Ballymun in Dublin) and the HSE in partnership with Headstrong will progress six new Jigsaw sites (Donegal, Offaly, Clondalkin, Tallaght, Balbriggan and Dublin 15) during 2012.
Reachout.com is another information initiative dedicated to ‘taking the mystery out of mental health’. With its real life stories by young people the reachout.com website helps young people with mental health difficulties remember and realise that tough times can be got through and that certainly they are not alone.
We must end stigmatisation once and for all in the area of mental health. The fear of what others might think often deters people from seeking help and support. Stigma is, I believe, the most damaging factor in the life of anyone who has a mental health problem. It humiliates and embarrasses; it creates fear and rejection and leads to discrimination. But, the greatest tragedy of all is that stigma keeps people from seeking help. The important work of Please Talk in breaking down this stigma, in encouraging students to talk to friends, family or each other and to avail of the confidential support services that are available on campuses is critical if we are to genuinely succeed in reducing the debilitation and loneliness that those with mental health issues often experience.
We need to become a society which can talk openly about mental health problems, honestly and without fear. We need to become a society in which our schools, colleges, health services and work places provide the right supports to people struggling with mental health issues, and become environments where discrimination is not allowed, and people with mental health concerns feel free to disclose what they are going through, and empowered to seek help without fear of ridicule, bullying or isolation.
Ní mór dúinn sochaí a chruthú inar féidir linn fadhbanna sláinte meabhracha a phlé go oscailte, go macánta agus gan eagla orainn. Ní mór dúinn sochaí a chruthú le scoileanna, coláistí, seirbhísí sláinte agus ionaid oibre atá sásta na tacaíochtaí cuí a chur ar fáil do dhaoine le fadhbanna sláinte meabhracha. Ní ghlacfar le hidirdhealú sna h-áiteanna seo agus beidh daoine le fadhbanna sláinte meabhracha in ann a gcuid scéalta a phlé go hoscailte agus cabhair a fháil gan eagla a bheith orthu roimh mhagadh, bulaíocht nó leithlis.
Disclosing a mental health difficulty is hard precisely because people with mental health difficulties face such negative attitudes in our workplaces, and in communities at large. We know that those who do not know or associate with people with mental health difficulties are those most likely to hold strong negative attitudes toward the very participation of people with mental health difficulties in our schools, workplaces and communities. However, we also know that it is through experience and engagement with someone with a mental health difficulty that has the most powerful impact on an individual’s attitude to those with mental health problems. This highlights the ongoing need for all us to continue to promote full participation and inclusion of people with mental health difficulties and to challenge negative attitudes when we encounter them. We must strive for a society that genuinely values and serves each citizen in all our wonderful diversity.
Of course, we need to watch out for each other and strive to recognise the signs and warnings of distress and be ready to offer support. We need to get the message across that with the right support, people with mental health problems can, and do recover.
Gan dabht ní mór dúinn aire a thabhairt dá chéile agus na comharthaí agus rabhaidh anró a aithint chun tacaíocht a chur ar fáil. Ní mór dúinn a chur in iúl gur féidir le daoine fadhbanna sláinte meabhracha a shárú má tá an tacaíocht chuí ann.
In addition to the Please Talk Programme, Mental Health Awareness Campaigns including the ‘Mind Your Mental Health’ and ‘Let Someone Know’ awareness campaigns and the ‘See Change’ and ‘Make A Ripple’ National Stigma Reduction Campaigns are continuing to bring about a more positive attitude to mental health, encourage people to be more aware of their mental health and, above all, to seek help.
I welcome the level of discussion and openness on mental health issues, including deliberate self harm and suicide. However, we do need to ensure that public discussion and media coverage of mental health issues, including suicide and deliberate self harm, remains measured, well informed and sensitive to the needs and well-being of some of the most vulnerable and distressed individuals in our society.
Of course, in recent years, we have many people in the public eye coming forward to discuss openly their mental health issues and I welcome their openness and willingness to help others in times of distress.
I wish to thank you all again for inviting me here today. I would like to take this opportunity to wish all those associated with PleaseTalk continued success with your future endeavours.
Is iontach an obair atá ar siúl agaibh. Go n-éirí go geal libh agus go raibh míle, míle maith agaibh.