Galway unveils visionary facility to help people struggling with mental health
From this week's Galway City Tribune - Minister for Mental Health, Mary Butler ditched her pre-prepared script and opened up about a family member’s mental illness in a speech during the official opening of Galway Community Café.
Officiating at the launch of the free, peer-led, out-of-hours adult mental health café at Mr Waffle, opposite University Hospital Galway, the Fianna Fáil TD recounted her cousin’s struggles for two decades.
“I’ve never made any secret of this; I have a cousin who was a (mental health) service user for the last 20 years, both voluntary and involuntary, and it does give you a huge understanding and huge learnings of what mental illness is, the effects it can have on family, and the effects it can have on the person themselves,” said Minister Butler.
“The one thing I’ve learned since I came into this post in relation to mental health is the stigma and labels we put on people,” she added.
Minister Butler said that she has read ‘Sharing the Vision’ cover to cover several times since taking up office. She said the previous national mental health policy, Vision for Change, was an excellent document, too, but it was not implemented in full.
“So I’m delighted that we have a national implementation monitoring committee to oversee what I do, to oversee what the HSE does, to oversee what the Department does and to make sure that we get the results. It’s great to be held to account,” she said.
The new approach to mental health was ‘cross-party, cross-departmental everyone working together to try and help people with poor mental health’.
She praised Niall Ó Tuathail who helped establish the café, and Kevin Nugent, owner of Mr Waffle.
“Without Mr Waffle, I don’t think we would be standing here. What you have done is inspirational – to open up your premises after hours, to a crisis café. Thank you and well done for being the first person in Ireland to open up your café for use (by mental health services) after hours. The help and support you’re giving to people with mental health illnesses, I don’t think we’d be able to quantify it,” added Minister Butler. This is a shortened preview version of this article. To read the rest of the story, see this week's Galway City Tribune. You can buy a digital edition HERE.