Exchange House’s Chief Executive; Catherine Morley along with the National Traveller Suicide Prevention Service (NTSPS) Travelling to Wellbeing  and other mental health workers from the Family Support team presented at the Irish Association of Sucidology annual conference in Westport, Co. Mayo last week.

The conference which was attended by statutory and voluntary organisations from all over Ireland and Northern Ireland focused on the high rates of self-harm and suicide in communities that are distant from ‘mainstream’ services.  In an attempt to explore the issues involved the conference held talks which included; suicide and self-harm responses in hospitals, and meatal health in the areas of; sport, community togetherness, prisoners, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community, and the Traveller community.

Catherine Morley; Exchange House Chief Executive presented on the design, development, and delivery of the National Traveller Suicide Prevention Service. She provided an insight into the work done by the service and their strategic goals. Catherine further explored the support given to communities and their engagement to develop resilience and suicide prevention skills. Furthermore she outlined the need for specific work with Travellers due to the extremely high suicide rate in the community. Sandra Mc Donagh; Travelling to Wellbeing Social Worker, delivered three detailed case studies that outlined the work and the positive impact that the Travelling to Wellbeing Service is having for Travellers in the areas of Offaly, Cork and Dublin. The case studies highlighted the difficult but inspiring work that the Travelling to Wellbeing workers and their service users do to ensure long term mental health recovery.

If you would like further information on the NTSPS, Travelling to Wellbeing or any of the Exchange House services please log onto: http://www.travellersuicide.ie/ or http://www.exchangehouse.ie and email info@exchangehouse.ie