News from: media

November 21, 2008

Headline News Highlights (14th - 21st November 2008)

Mental Health

Mental health awareness pack for third level students
Connaught Telegraph (Tue, 18 Nov 2008)
An innovative new mental health awareness pack, Free, will be distributed to third level colleges around the country over the coming weeks as part of the USFs mental health awareness campaign.

One-quarter of adults taking prescription medicines
Bray People
(Tue, 18 Nov 2008)
One-quarter of all adults in Ireland are taking medicine prescribed by their doctors, according to a survey commissioned by the Women's Health Council. The council says the research has found that financially disadvantaged women are the most likely people to be taking prescription medicine.

Roscommon teenagers take national award for magazine
Roscommon People (Fri, 14 Nov 2008)
A group of Roscommon teenagers emerged from the Croke Park conference centre in Dublin recently with a national youth citizenship award and the plaudits of a Government Minister for their unique efforts at improving mental health standards among their peers.

Report highlights isolation levels of gay community in Galway area
Galway City Tribune (Fri, 14 Nov 2008)
A new report to be launched next week will reveal the extent to which being gay in Galway can impact negatively on the social life and good mental and physical health of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in the city. The analysis examined the needs of the LGBT population in Galway, Mayo and Roscommon and found some alarming results in terms of the isolation and discrimination still being experienced and encountered by those in the region who are not heterosexual.

Mental Health Service

HSE seeking 10 families to act as 'safe houses' for children at risk
Evening Herald (Tue, 18 Nov 2008)
The HSE is seeking 10 families who will operate their homes as out-of-hours safe houses for children at risk.  The new service is aimed at ensuring there is somewhere for children to be brought in an emergency outside normal social worker hours.  Demands for a proper out-of- hours service have peaked in recent years following the tragic deaths of children in a number of high-profile incidents, including the case of Sharon Grace in Wexford.

Psychiatric treatment probe nears completion
Irish Independent (Sat, 15 Nov 2008)
An independent inquiry into treatment practices at two psychiatric hospitals is in the final stages.  The Clonmel Inquiry, which was set up by the Mental Health Commission in June 2007, is finalising its report on care at the two facilities in Tipperary.  It's understood treatment practices and the use of restraint at St Luke's Psychiatric Hospital and St Michael's Unit in South Tipperary General Hospital are being examined by the inquiry.

Suicide Prevention

Crosses mark memory of suicide victims
Irish Examiner (Wed, 19 Nov 2008)
Almost 500 white crosses have been erected as part of an aware- ness initiative remembering the victims of suicide was yesterday launched by the Students' Union at the Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) in conjunction with Mental Awareness Week there. They are on display this week outside the health and life sciences building at the campus to serve as "a poignant reminder of the number of people recorded as having taken their own lives in the Republic of Ireland each year", said a spokesman yesterday.

Self Harm

60,000 self-harm cases ‘hidden’ and untreated
IMT (Wed, 19 Nov 2008)
There are approximately 60,000 ‘hidden’ instances of people deliberately harming themselves every year, the Director of Research at the National Suicide Research Foundation has said.
Speaking to the Joint Oireachtas Sub-Committee on the High Level of Suicide in Ireland, Dr Ella Arensmann pointed out that while 11,000 incidents of deliberate self-harm are medically treated per annum in Ireland, another 60,000 cases occur where such help is not sought.

Eating Disorders

Children as young as seven suffering anorexia
Irish Independent (Mon, 17 Nov 2008)
Children as young as seven are suffering from eating disorders as they pick up on society's obsession with super skinny celebrities. Experts warn that many children are already dieting and counting calories by the age of 10 with even some six-year-olds avoiding high-fat foods.

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