My Working DayAs mental health resource officer with the Health Service Executive South, Brenda Crowley has responsibility for the suicide-prevention programme
I'm a mental health resource officer for the HSE South and, along with my colleague Seán McCarthy, I have responsibility for our suicide and suicide- prevention programme. I work closely with the national office for suicide prevention.
On a typical day, I will link in with various services which I have responsibility for, such as our helplines. We operate two helplines. One is a suicide helpline for individuals who are feeling suicidal or for friends, colleagues and family members of someone in distress. The other is a farm and rural stress helpline. Lots of the calls to this line are from people who are lonely and isolated.
At present I am preparing for our attendance at the National Ploughing Championships in Tullow, Co Carlow, which starts tomorrow. We had a stand at the championships for the first time last year and it was a great success. We also offered free health checks and 100s of people participated.
Information is a big issue for us. People need to know what services are available and where. Often people in distress don't know where to turn. We are constantly trying to get that information out there.
I also do a lot of training. We target people working in the community and try to make them aware of the issue of people in distress. In particular, we target those working with young people and groups such as the Traveller community. The links with community groups help them empower themselves.
As part of our programme we run a peer-support group for young people. The need for this group was identified by young people themselves. The idea is for young people to provide support to each other after experiencing the suicide of friends or family members. This group was set up in Midleton, Co Cork, but we have plans to expand it to other areas.
The aim is to help participants develop listening and communication skills so they can help other young people who are having difficulties.
Stigma can be a big issue and it's something we are trying to overcome. The national office is setting up a national anti-stigma campaign, which will aim to get people talking about the issue.
I've been working in this position since August 2000 and I work closely with 11 other resource officers around the State. We give each other practical and emotional support.
Sometimes people feel a little disillusioned about the issue of suicide, but I believe huge progress has been made in the past five years. It's on the political agenda. While there is still stigma, young people are more open about it. Suicide is not one person's responsibility; it's everybody's.