HSE Ascain celebrate World Mental Health Day with students in Letterkenny

HSE Ascain Training & Support Service celebrated World Mental Health Day with Transition Year students in Letterkenny. 

The service, which has locations in Dungloe, Letterkenny and Carndonagh, provides person-centred training and support for adults (18-65 years) in recovery from mental ill health.  

HSE Ascain invited Transition Year students from the four secondary schools in Letterkenny, Coláiste Ailigh, Loreto Convent, St Eunan’s College and Errigal College to come together and celebrate World Mental Health Day with HSE Ascain service users and staff. 

To mark the day, HSE Ascain and the Transition Year students worked in collaboration to devise a project called “Walk in my Shoes”, whereby every student, service user and staff member was asked to design a pair of shoes that depicts what mental health means to them.    

On Friday, students, service users and staff met at the Vestry, St Conal’s Campus, Letterkenny at 10:30am, all wearing their custom-made shoes to the event. After a warm welcome by HSE Ascain staff, they proceeded to make their way to the Bernard McGlinchey Town Park, where they walked two laps around the park wearing the designer shoes.

 The aim in joining together with the youth to celebrate this day was to encourage empathy, break stigma, open conversations, reach out for help and the promotion of emergency services line with the theme of World Mental Health Day for this year, which is “Access to Services in times of Emergency and Catastrophe.”

 After the walk, all returned to the Vestry, where services that may be needed in the case of an emergency were promoted, what they offer and how they can be accessed by displaying stands around the hall. The new Suicide Crisis Assessment Nurse Underage (SCAN U) service, which was launched recently for the 16-plus age group, took the opportunity to address the TY students in the hall and promote this vital service.

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 All attendees were invited to leave their reflections about the day, the whole process of making the shoes and gather their thoughts about what Mental Health means to them. There were some very interesting and colourful shoes, all with profound meaning for the designers/wearers. HSE Ascain would like to thank all of those who took part in today’s event and everyone for their tremendous artistic efforts.