Tune in to positive thinking for world mental health week

Ireland’s first pop-up radio station dedicated to promoting positive mental health through the airwaves will encourage people to seek help and advice at an early stage.

Upbeat On Air will be run by St Patrick’s Mental Health Services during Mental Health Awareness Week from Monday, October 6th, to Friday, October 10th, which is World Mental Heath Day.

Radio professionals from local, national and community radio have volunteered to service the station. A selection of Irish celebrities and advocates for mental health have also been invited to contribute to the scheduled programming.

Presenters already confirmed include barrister and former RTÉ presenter, Theresa Lowe, who will be co-presenting with comedian Alan Shortt, and model and mother Alison Canavan, who will be co-presenting with Shay Byrne, who presents Risin' Time on RTÉ Radio 1.

The radio station, which is being launched today, will broadcast live to Dublin city and county (at a frequency yet to be announced) and online from St Patrick’s University Hospital on St James’s Street, Dublin, throughout the week between 7am and 10pm.

The public are being asked to nominate the song they find most uplifting through the station’s website; these songs will form the playlist for the week.

Personal experiences

Sarah Surgenor, communications manager with St Patrick’s mental health services, explains: “We developed the concept of Upbeat On Air as we were looking for an innovative and creative way to get people talking about mental health. We’ll be on air for 70 hours during Mental Health Awareness Week, during which we will have well-known people talking about their own personal experiences.

“We will also be providing tips and guidance for people on how they can look after their mental health in a positive and proactive way.”

While Lowe will always be associated with Where in the World, the quiz show she presented on RTÉ, she has been working as a barrister in criminal law for the past 16 years. As a sister of Joan Freeman, the founder and chief executive of Pieta House, Lowe has a real understanding of the importance of minding our mental health.

“So many people invest time in working out and getting their body healthy, but they forget all about their brain and mind. If you are in a happy place mentally, you can do anything. Mothers in particular tend to put everybody before themselves. We will be talking to people on the show about the things we can do on an everyday basis to keep ourselves mentally well.”

For Lowe, who has four children and is married to Frank McNamara, the director of music at RTÉ, staying mentally healthy is all about the simple things. She reads every night before she goes to sleep and finds listening to a beautiful piece of music makes her feel calm and happy.

Comedian and media skills trainer, Alan Shortt, has spoken openly in the past about the terrible darkness he fell into when he lost his job with Dublin radio station Q102 and work dried up in 2008. He has slowly built himself back up again, both mentally and career-wise, and come to accept that the business he is in will always have its ups and downs.

“We all need to educate ourselves in our own mental wellbeing and what works for us because we are all different. The most important thing is that we talk about our problems. Irish men are desperate at finding the words to describe how we feel,” he says.

Alison Canavan has also been very open about her struggle with severe postnatal depression following the birth of her son, James, four years ago. Having suffered depression since her teens, she says she has learned a lot about her own mental health since she started treatment for her postnatal depression.

“I have learned that the key to mental health is a lot more than just taking a tablet or finding a diagnosis. I describe it as being like a pie. Everybody’s pie is made from the same ingredients including exercise, lifestyle, counselling, medication, etc, but how we share our pie varies. Just because you suffer from the same illness as the person beside you does not mean that you will have the same road to recovery. You need to find your own formula that works for you and bear in mind that this will change over time.”

For Canavan, the magic formula is “a little bit of everything”. Her vital ingredients are eating well, exercise, meditation and getting enough sleep. If she neglects one slice of her pie, she knows from experience that it will impact very quickly on her energy levels and mood.

Dublin woman Lynn Graham, who is 33, is one of a number of users of the St Patrick’s services who will be sharing their mental health experiences on Upbeat On Air.

Despite having experienced depression on and off since the age of 14, Graham never sought professional help until February 2013, when she was admitted to St Patrick’s hospital. She was suffering from severe depression, was extremely underweight and was further diagnosed with borderline (emotionally unstable) personality disorder.

When her social worker at St Patrick’s told Graham last year that she was going to contact a HSE family-support worker to work with her, she was terrified.

“I got the fright of my life, I thought they would take my son away from me because I was not a fit mother. If I had known then how my life would turn around over the next year, I wouldn’t have been afraid. I now realise that the family worker is there to support people to keep their children and to build you up to be the best parent you can be. She was not there to judge me but to help me. I wanted to tell my story in case any other single mothers, who are not going for help because they are afraid of losing their children, might hear it and seek help.”

Graham describes her family-support worker as a “confidante” who visits her weekly, providing her with vital emotional support and advice, and giving her confidence in her own skills as a mother. Her mental health toolkit includes weekly psychotherapy sessions, medication and healthy eating. She has recently started a new job as an office manager.

“I’m still in financial difficulty and I’m still a single mother, but my outlook has changed. I’ve got my energy back and, most importantly, I have hope,” she says.

For more information and to nominate a song, see upbeat.ie