Limerick Mental Health Week 2017 starts on October 6th running until October 13th. With a wide variety of events planned we look forward to another impactful week.
Why do we run Limerick Mental Health Week?
We established Limerick Mental Health Week in 2005 to raise awareness of mental health. We also wanted to highlight the different work being carried out across Limerick city and county. Seeing the week grow year on year to collaborating with over 25 different organizations. We are proud to be a forerunner for mental health in Limerick.
WHO or the World Health Organisation play an impact on our week by giving us a theme and setting World Mental Health Day which falls on October 10th and allows us to better tailor our week. This year the theme is Mental Health in the Workplace. It can be easy for us as organisations to help people on a daily basis, but rarely do we look inward and make sure everyone working/volunteering with us are looking after their own mental health.
We see the importance in raising awareness of not just mental health but the different organisations and what each does. The week can be seen as having three pillars that are the foundation of what the week represents and what we strive to accomplish.
Awareness
We can all name organisations that do work in or around the mental health sector. We all know the term “Mental Health”. We have also all heard that we need to look after our mental health. Limerick Mental Health Week 2017 aims to answer the following:
- How does eac organisation do it’s work?
- Contact details for each organisation
- Opening hours for each organisation
Limerick Mental health Week 2017 looks to raise awareness of what each organisation does, along with the awareness of what mental health is.
Collaboration
We cannot put together this week of events without the help and equal partnership of all the different mental health organisations. The strength of the team is each individual member and the strength of each member is the team. We as organisations need to be aware of what is happening and what we all do across Limerick. Planning the week involves all the different organisations coming together at the same table working towards the common goal. Limerick Mental Health Association is proud to be able to learn about the different organisations, which in turn helps our future work as it does for each other.
We would like to thank all of the organisations involved, these include: HSE Mid West Suicide Prevention Office, GROW, Samaritans, Mental Health Ireland, Doras Lumni, Men’s Shed Association, Le Chéile, My Mind, Family Resource Centres, ICHAS, Loss and Grief Group (LIT), Gender Orientation Sexual Health HIV (GOSHH), Blue Box Creative Arts, Limerick Youth Service,Northstar Family Support Project, Headway, Enable Ireland, Paul Partnership, Bedford Row Family Project, An Garda Siochana, Mary Immaculate College, Employability, University of Limerick, and SMRC Urban Run.
Well-Being
As part of the week we have numerous public events planned from talks / workshops / music to a huge Family Funday (Oct 7th 12 – 4pm, Bedford Row). We also run closed events through the week which aren’t publically open including going into the hospitals, schools and this year the Gardaí will be running a week of mental health awareness for themselves in house. The most important pillar for us at LMHA is for the week overall to have a positive impact on our mental health in the general community of Limerick. Through the we hope to show the importance of positive well-being and how we should nurture and look after it.