Supporting the nation’s mental health

A unique partnership between Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology and the Royal College of Surgeons supported by the Health Service Executive and Spunout.ie is taking an artistic approach to youth mental health issues. The Youth Mental Health Animation Project produced a series of five short animations which capture several themes and issues related to experiences commonly reported by young people including anxiety, depression, feeling different, bullying and loneliness. The animations are now providing much needed, accessible, mental health resources for young people across Ireland.

Gaming as Youth Work is another innovative project which is addressing the mental health and wellbeing needs of young people. The project run by a partnership between the Institute of Technology Carlow and Carlow Regional Youth Service, funded by the Irish Research Council, is proving that when used properly gaming can be a powerful tool for fostering connections with and between young people. Significantly, the project has found that digital gaming can be an effective way of engaging with young people who experience anxiety, social isolation or other challenges.

Practical resources

The Gaming as Youth Work project has already received interest from other youth services. The practical resources developed by the project will be distributed widely with the aim of enabling all youth workers, regardless of technical ability, to realise the potential of digital gaming as a tool for promoting the social and personal development of young people.

Men’s health is the focus of the Sheds for Life (SFL) project run by the Irish Men’s Sheds Association. Irish Research Council PhD scholar at the Centre for Health Behaviour Research at Waterford Institute of Technology Aisling McGrath is assessing the impact of the SFL project which aims to promote men’s engagement with health and wellbeing and address the gender disparities that exist in community-based health promotion.

“My time spent evaluating Sheds for Life has shown that in the right environment men will and, quite rightly, want to talk about their wellbeing,” says McGrath. “This is evident in the enhancements in physical, mental and social health outcomes demonstrated by the SFL research to date. The Men’s Sheds are health enhancing for men because they are informal, non-clinical safe spaces where health and wellbeing is not always directly addressed but, where the friendship, cameraderie and sense of purpose and belonging offer inherent health-promoting benefits.”

[ thea.ie/Impact2020 ]