New headquarters for mental health organisation

TWO all-time Munster rugby greats teamed up last week to celebrate a major victory for the region in mental healthcare and suicide prevention.

 

Limerick City Lord Mayor and former All-Black nemesis Gerry Ginger McLoughlin, along with recent former Munster flanker extraordinaire, Alan Quinlan, turned out to open a new €300,000 facility for GROW, the mental healthcare recovery organisation at 33 Henry Street, Limerick.

Both former greats have bravely opened up publicly in the past about their own personal battles with mental health issues.

Acquired and completed with a grant from the JP McManus Pro Am 2010 Fund, the new GROW facility, formerly Limerick Plant Hire, represents a major breakthrough for the region by providing an improved permanent base for the operations of GROW’s Mid-West Region.

According to GROW regional chairman Rob Stephen, who lives in Shannon, its provision also opens the way for increased resources to aid the increasing numbers of mental health sufferers in the Clare, Limerick and North Tipperary areas – in particular those in the high suicide risk 18 to 25 age group – who are currently suffering from unemployment and recession-related issues.

“The fact that we no longer have to pay an annual rent for a premises means that funds can be channelled into improving frontline GROW services in the region. We are very grateful to JP and Noreen McManus and family, whose generosity has secured the future of Grow in the Mid-West.

“In World Mental Health Awareness Week, we want to make people conscious of the fact that mental health issues can affect any one of us at any time in our lives,” Mr Stephen stated.

According to GROW, one in 10 among the Irish the population are now suffering from mental health issues at any one time, while one in four will suffer from these issues at some time in their lives.
Alan Quinlan has already spoken extensively of his experiences with anxiety and depression, as has Gerry McLoughlin, who once revealed how his marriage break-up had left him feeling suicidal.

Along with Jan O’Sullivan, Minister for State for the Environment, Community and Local Government, both were present to give their support to publicise the new facility.

GROW’s national chairman, Denis Fitzpatrick presented Rob Stephen with a brass plate indicating the new 33 Henry Street office is now the national registered office of GROW in Ireland, while Dr Mike Watts, PhD, outlined the history of GROW in the region.

Dr Watts, who recently retired as GROW’s national programme co-ordinator, lived in Clare for many years before moving to Kilkenny and has been a driving force behind GROW in the Mid-West over the past 25 years.

The new office is already scheduled to host support group meetings every week night – bringing people from all ages and background groups together from inner city dwellers to rural farmers for mutual support, recovery and personal development.

Mr Stephen explained, “We will be focusing in particular on helping younger people in the 18 to 25 group for whom the recession has proven particularly tough and for whom the recent suicide rate has been unacceptably high. Limerick is experiencing record levels of unemployment but within that age group, prospects are even bleaker. We want to show young people who are suffering that there is light at the end of the tunnel.”

To achieve this, GROW organises specific meetings for young adults at Henry Street, Limerick and St Anthony’s Hall, Ennis every Monday night at 8pm. GROW provides a supportive network for those who suffer from depression, panic attacks, stress, anxiety and other mental health issues which have increased since the recession.

“We find that people who have been in State care in the Munster Region return to society without support and straight away fall into the same patterns of life, which take them right back into care again. GROW offers a way of breaking this cycle.

“Our mutual support meeting programmes are akin to undertaking a gym workout for your mental health. People must realise that everyone needs to work out now and again to protect their mental health as much as their physical well being,” added Mr Stephen.