Raising mental health awareness

COMHAIRLE NA NOG PRESENTS RESULTS OF THEIR WORK ON MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS TO COUNCIL

COUNCILLORS heard there were two incidents of the dumping of diesel laundering waste in Louth during December.

These incidents resulted in six IBC’s (International Bulk Containers) filled with the toxic remnants from the illegal diesel laundering trade being dumped.

The local authority faced the cost of cleaning up and disposing the material, which amounted to €6000, a cost which is ultimately paid by the tax payer.

Councillors were told that the local authority is involved in a ‘cross border, inter agency’ strategy aimed at dealing with diesel laundering. ‘Communications are ongoing with the relevant stakeholders to progress the multi agency approach to dealing with diesel laundering.’ REPRESENTATIVES from Louth Comhairle na nOg presented the results of their work on mental health awareness to councillors at the January meeting.

The junior council had worked on producing a poster entitled ‘ Breathe’ highlighting steps to take to protect mental health, from mindfulness to talking about how they felt.

They are hoping to produce around 10,000 of the posters, which can be made available to schools and youth groups.

They had also worked to raise awareness about the impact of bullying.

The students also spoke about their visit to Brussels where they met Louth MEP Mariead McGuinness, and presented a Brexit ‘action plan’ to the parliament’ along with other junior councillors from Cavan, Monaghan and Meath.

Cllr. Maeve Yore said she had attended their annual conference in Dundalk last year, and was ‘ blown away by the energy in the room’ She congratulated them on a busy year.

Cllr. Maria Doyle also added her own tributes, particularly in relation to the mental health awareness they had carried out.

She said that as a primary school teacher she found that pupils in 5th and 6th class could also benefit from resources such as the poster Comhairle na nOg had produced, along with those they were planning to send to secondary schools.

Cllr Johanna Byrne agreed, saying that the poster should be made available to a wide range of young people.

Cllr. John McGahon added that the topic was very relevant, given the current debate over ‘influencers’ on social media.

He said that although social media was a very popular and useful tool for young people, they should be made aware also of the potential pitfalls, such as the facility on Snapchat which might automatically give away the users current location to hundreds of people.

Cllr. McGahon said it was a ‘ very digital age’ which young people were growing up in.

He congratulated the students, adding that if they found they had enjoyed making a contribution they should consider political life.

Cllr. Marianne Butler agreed, adding that the negative aspects of social media are emerging.

Cllr. Ruairi O’Mhurchu congratulated them on producing ‘ a really fantastic resource.’

Cllr. Edel Corrigan added that the poster was a particularly useful resource ‘as it can be very hard to talk about mental health. This should help to break down barriers.’

Cllr. Tom Cunningham said that as a father of three daughters he found it a very useful way for young people to get advice from their peers.