The bear necessities for mental health
WHILE canvassing in Bunclody last week Independents 4 Change candidate Seanie O’Shea and team received a strange request from one of the people they spoke to.
‘A man asked us to erect a teddy bear and some suicide support notices on a bridge on our way home. He didn’t specify where exactly so we attached them to Ferrycarrig Bridge, and it was the least we could do,’ said Seanie.
‘I think it shows that there are incredibly good people in this county trying to help others in some way. Whether it’s the work of Marine Watch in Wexford town or this gentleman in Bunclody, it’s our community that’s making up the shortfall of having been utterly failed by successive Governments in relation to mental health services.’
Citing high suicide rates in the county, its lack of acute mental healths services, and the delays in opening Slaney House, Mr O’Shea said when he thought of Wexford Bridge he worried about the three people who ‘ lost their lives just around the corner at Kaats Strand’ 15 years ago and not the threat of a terrorist attack as one of his counterparts in the forthcoming General Election had suggested last year.
‘Mental health services in the county have deteriorated since then. I worry about all the other people who have lost their lives in tragedy at Wexford Bridge and those who continue to end up there in moments of crisis and I thank God that Marine Watch are there to prevent more tragedy and offer support.
‘ They are my worries. I worry about the reality of what’s happening in Wexford and Ireland and I want to at least try fix the reality.’