SOSAD reaching out in east Cavan
The prayers of many east Cavan people have been answered with a mental health outreach centre is set to open in Mullagh next month.
East Cavan For Wellness will open its doors on August 21, facilitated by SOSAD Cavan.
Based out of Mullagh Heritage Centre, Virginia man Martin Tynan says: “It’s exciting. It’s been a while coming. Lots of friends and family have been lost to suicide in this local area.”
Martin has been advocating for an outreach centre in the area since Christmas, and is delighted to see the campaign bearing fruit.
“I feel there’s a real need for it in this area. I know Cavan Town, it is a bit of a trek if you’re feeling bad so hopefully, if you’re from this region, you’ll know there’s a place here you can call into.
“As a country we have to wake up and see, our children are dying, our population is dying. Any step in the right direction to help people to see that there is something else, that they don’t have to go down that road. I’m not naive enough to think that we’re going to save every single person but we’re giving people the opportunity to be saved.”
While searching for a base for the centre, Martin’s objective was to find somewhere that offered privacy for its service users.
“It’s a lovely setting in Mullagh and it’s a lovely building here. It has privacy. You have the playground beside us, you have the church, you’ve the actual Heritage Centre itself so people who are afraid of being seen driving into SOSAD, you could be going in for any of those other three things so you have a bit of privacy as well.”
Support
Martin spoke fondly of the SOSAD team, stating he is hopeful people in the area will avail of their services.
“SOSAD are on the ground. Hopefully people get comfortable with using it, even to come in for a cup of coffee. There’s still a stigma around mental health.”
SOSAD Cavan co-ordinator, Christine Wynne, is looking forward to getting the new service up and running.
“We will have eight sessions available here all day Monday, the last session will be at 11 o’clock, so there are two evening sessions for anyone who is working or whatever.”
Christine agrees there is a need for the service in the wider East Cavan area.
“We have been invited to east Cavan, which shows the need for the service, the trust in our service and the community is behind us. We have to thank the Heritage Centre here for offering us the room.”
The co-ordinator is hoping the outreach centre will offer preventative services to help those people in their time of need.
“We want people to talk about things that are causing them stress, causing them depression, causing them to feel like they’ve nobody to talk to because they don’t want to burden colleagues, family or friends.
“The prevention peace is massive because we don’t want to be on the other side of the table speaking to another family that have been bereaved by suicide.”
Christine is encouraging people to use their services, no matter how small they believe their problems are.
“We do see a breakup of a marriage, a breakup of a relationship where people were only together two months but they’re still heartbroken. That’s not for you or I to judge and say ‘what’s wrong with you?’ It’s very real for that person at that time. It could be the death of someone nothing to do with suicide.
“It doesn’t have to be the hard hitting stuff, it could be something simple but, at that moment, for that person, it’s very real and they can’t handle it.”
Mullagh Heritage Centre will be open all day Monday and anyone interested in availing their services are welcome to attend, have a cup of tea with some of the SOSAD team and book in for future counselling sessions.