Pieta House aims to tackle mental health stigma
SCHOOLS across Cork have been urged to sign up to a ground-breaking initiative aimed at addressing the stigma, that is still all too often, associated with mental illness.
Launched last year by Pieta House, the ‘Resilience Academy’ has been specifically designed to reduce the number of deaths by suicide among Irish schoolchildren.
According to statistics, Ireland has the highest rate of deaths by suicide among teenage girls in Europe and the second highest rate among teenage boys.
Pieta House CEO Brian Higgins, said there had been a 22% increase in the number of under 18’s presenting to the charity due to suicide and self-harm over the past two years - with more than 2,000 teenagers nationally having received treatment through Pieta House so far this year.
Mr Higgins said that school can bring challenging situations for all children and that “we expect teenagers to be able to cope without ever explicitly teaching them how.”
“This is particularly the case for students in the early years of secondary school. They are in a new environment and beginning preparations for their Junior Cert, both of which can be very stressful,” he said.
“For that reason we have developed this initiative for second year students that will teach them to better recognise their emotions, provide the resources to cope with stressful situations and encourage them to seek help from appropriate sources should they need it.”
The six-week programme takes the form of weekly interactive sessions at participating schools, conducted by a Pieta House team with the assistance of teachers, that will encourage students to explore a variety of issues of concern to them such as bullying, sexuality or body shaming.
Over the course of the programme students engage in activities aimed at developing positive coping strategies and also receive advice on the various support mechanisms open to them.
“The ultimate aim is to equip students with the emotional resilience tools in the hope that they will not need the help of Pieta House as adults,” said Mr Higgins.
He said the feedback from last years inaugural academy, which was developed using examples of similar programmes run in other countries, was very positive.
“It has proven to increase young people’s resilience, their hope for the future, their ability to cope with upset feelings and helped improve connection to their schools,” said Mr Higgins.
“As parents and teachers we can’t remove every obstacle from their lives but we can provide them with the knowledge, skills and tools they need to respond to challenges in a healthy and constructive manner. That is why we developed the Resilience Academy”.
To find out more about the ‘Resilience Academy’ and to enquire about running it at your school visit www.pietahouse.ie, contact the Pieta House Education and Training Team on 01 458 5490 or email resilience@pieta.ie.