It’s OK to ask for Help

May is becoming a busy month for mental health promotion and activism in Ireland.  The Cycle Against Suicide, now in its third year, has grown from strength to strength and Pieta House have managed to shine their Darkness into Light event into many locations across all counties and a number of countries and continents. On top of that, the Green Ribbon campaign, which ran throughout May, has succeeded in triggering many conversations about mental health.  Whether it is by design or by happy coincidence that all these events take place during the same month, what is certain is that May has become the month where talk about mental health is becoming normalised and that is a very positive thing indeed.

The success of the Cycle Against Suicide was recognised recently when they were deserving winners of the Charity Sport Tourism Event Award at the European Sport Tourism Summit which took place in Thomond Park, Limerick, during May.  The aims of the cycle are two-fold: –

• Raise Awareness among the 6,000,000 people on the island of Ireland that ‘it’s ok not to feel ok; and that it’s absolutely ok to ask for help’;
• Direct people in need to where this critical help is available both locally and nationally.

Cycle Against Suicide ambassador Aoibheann McCaul (Fair City)

GROW has been involved in the cycle since its inception by providing information stands at many of the schools, colleges and community centres along the route.  Generally, at these events, there are not many leaflets given out.  Instead, the presence of the various mental health organisations strengthens the fact that there is help out there for those who may be in distress. In addition, by drawing the various organisations together for these events, the Cycle Against Suicide team have provided an environment where a lot of networking takes place which in turn leads to collaboration and potential for improvements in our mental health services.

Another aspect to the cycle which perhaps is not so obvious is their homestay programme. During the fortnight whilst the cycle is in progress, around 500+ cyclists need to be accommodated each night. This is done by linking up cyclists with people in each community along the route who open up their homes to a couple of cyclists for the night. In this way, thousands of families around the country are involved and many conversations take place in these homes. In this way, the key message of the cycle filters out into communities, homes and families.

To find out more about the Cycle Against Suicide visit their You Tube Channel or listen to Jim Breen’s interview on RTE.