Arklow’s Youth Mental Health Week kicks off
PACKED LINE-UP CELEBRATES THE TENTH YEAR OF ANNUAL EVENT
ARKLOW’S Youth Mental Health Week kicked off a busy schedule on Monday. Now in its tenth year, the annual event aims to promote positive mental health, help to reduce stigma, improve emotional literacy and encourage help-seeking behaviour.
The week will provide a broad and varied line-up of events aimed at young people aged from 12 to 18 years within the four secondary school in Arklow and Youthreach.
The week features workshops and talks to each year group on topics from promoting positive mental health, managing conflict, drug and alcohol awareness to coping with suicide, the benefits of physical exercise, finding your mojo and music.
A celebration ceremony will take place on Friday, October 11, in the Arklow Bay Hotel, where the schools involved will make a presentation about the impact that ten years of Arklow Youth Mental Health has had on the lives of young people in the town.
The ceremony will be held between the Junior Big Sing which commences at 10 a.m. and the Senior Big Sing on Friday afternoon. The much anticipated annual ‘Big Sing’ events showcase choirs, solo artists and bands from the primary and secondary schools in the town as they perform together to give the message that music and singing is good for your mental health.
To mark this year’s tenth anniversary, the committee is also launching a ‘10 Talks for 10 Years’ initiative whereby monthly community parent talks on youth mental health will be scheduled on Tuesday evenings, at 7 p.m. in Arklow Library between October 2019 and October 2020.
The first of these talks took place yesterday (Tuesday) and the second talk on managing childhood anxiety will take place tomorrow (Thursday, October 10). Both talks will be facilitated by Dr. Patrick Loughran, Senior Clinical Psychologist, HSE, Wicklow. The talk is free and all are welcome to attend.
This local initiative has been achieved through the collaboration of a committee established in association with HSE Arklow Primary Care Clinical Psychology Team, Arklow Local Education Committee, East Wicklow Youth Service, Arklow Mental Health Association, Arklow Community Policing Unit, Mental Health Ireland, Arklow Community Development and Arklow Springboard. Arklow Youth Mental Health Week obtained charity status under the affiliation of Mental Health Ireland2016.