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A NEW PROFESSIONAL mental health service for teenagers in Ireland launched this week.
Turn2Me.org is an Irish website that has been offering adults who are experiencing mental health difficulties the facility to speak with trained mental health professionals online.
The website was first launched in 2009 by brothers Oisin and Diarmuid Scollard. The pair set out to create a new online platform for people struggling with mental health issues after their brother Cormac died by suicide in 2003.
Oisin Scollard told TheJournal.ie why they opted for an online platform.
“We’ve got 9-5pm mental health services in Ireland but it’s very hard to get into them… We wanted to do something that was online because online isn’t 9-5pm. Online has better availability for people, it breaks barriers down for people and it’s a lot more accessible,” Scollard told TheJournal.ie.
Since 2009, Turn2Me.org has seen massive success. In 2014, the service received HSE funding to offer 8 free online counselling sessions to users. Since then, the service has provided over 6,000 hours of counselling.
Turn2MeYouth
On the back of its success, the Scollard brothers are opening a new website, Turn2MeYouth.ie, focused solely on 16 to 19-year-olds.
“We were over 18 and I felt that was always very limiting,” Scollard explained.
Scollard said that he felt like while there are youth services available in Ireland, most of them are “information-based services” providing well-being information.
“That’s all very good and very powerful but beyond a certain type of helpline that exists, there’s not really any sort of people to connect with in a clinically sound and responsible way,” he said.
It’s really to give young people aged 16-19 access to the group type of environment on a daily basis, professionally facilitated with a highly trained counsellor, providing topics that young people would want to discuss.
“The problem with youth mental health in this country is that there’s no joined up plan that says look we have a bit of online, a bit of drop in centre, we have a day care and extended stay care facilities,” Scollard said.
“That’s not all joined up, so how are you going to guide people through the journey that they go through on the spectrum that they might go through? Not everybody is at that end of the spectrum where you’ll need extended stay care inside a rehabilitation centre.”
“It can be right back down to the very beginning of the spectrum where they might just need somewhere to start. It can be a really easy way to do it.”
So what does Turn2Me.org offer?
Both the adult and youth services operate on a “three-tiered” approach, according to Schollard.
Once someone creates an account on the website, they can access a number of different services.
There are self-help articles, podcasts and guidance posters available. Following this, there are peer support groups available. Users will get daily access to a professional in a secure group chat environment. Up to 12 people can join each group.
“They’re daily support groups that people can come into on their phones, they’re professionally facilitated and they’re on different topics like anxiety, depression, family and relationship difficulties, and workplace related stress,” Scollard said.
Finally, the website offers one-to-one support through individual counselling sessions.
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Turn2Me.org ran focus group with two different groups of 60 teenagers from all over Ireland with different socioeconomic backgrounds before launching the youth service.
This helped the Scollard brothers figure out what young people really wanted out of a mental health service.
“The subjects that we’ve chosen deliberately were very much based on what young people were saying they were wanting,” he said.
Anxiety is a very, very considerably large concern for young people and there’s issues around school, exams, where do I go now, sexuality as well. We have a dedicated LGBT group for young people.
Youth-friendly service
The new youth service is mobile-focused, in a bid to connect with the young users.
“We built mobile-first, it happens to work on a desktop, with the idea that we could offer some degree of connection to the place they know and spend a lot of time.”
Scollard told TheJournal.ie that although the new service will be dealing with minors, the service is completely safe and secure.
“In Ireland, 16 is the age at which a younger person can begin to start making their own decisions,” he said.
“I really wanted this to go 13+ but that’s just not going to be possible at the moment because of those parental consent issues. There’s a real need for 13+ but we’ve settled on 16+ for now because we’ve taken all the legal advice.”
For more information about the services, visit www.turn2meyouth.ie and www.turn2me.org.
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Great idea guys. Keep up the great work. Social enterprises can often come up with innovative solutions to the problems of society, when civil servants can’t. They should get all the support they need to achieve their goals.
That’s a great idea, extremely well thought out and no doubt will be a valuable resource for many young people. Its unfortunate that it took a personal tragedy to spark this , im sure their brother would be so proud of what they’ve achieved and the lives this has the potential to change . Why can’t the HSE be more proactive like this? Instead of constantly failing people.
I commend these lads for their efforts. Fair dues to them! However, most clients of this service will need therapists in the long term. The HSE are attempting to wash their hands of such clients by funding PIETA and these lads and thinking that’s enough. These clients need long term therapy not 6 sessions with a counselor. No disrespect to good counsellors. However, counsellors do not have the training to achieve meaningful lasting solutions for such clients.
@Jordan Salanger: well said, sure it takes roughly 6 weeks for a counsellor to even get to know a client.
Amazing initiative to help our young people especially boys/men who may find it harder to ask for help. How is this being funded? Is it a charity or is the state helping (which it really should). I would get right behind this and will be keeping my eye on its progress. Best of luck and well done.
That’s a great initiative – however they are not the first online counselling service in Ireland to provide this kind of service – for example http://www.helplink.ie have been providing a low cost online counselling service for past 5 years! They are a charitable organisation providing mental health and conflict resolution services to Irish people of all ages at home and abroad (some free – some low cost).
Sorry but about time our whole health system is a joke politicians spending money on ridiculous unwanted SHITE
no jobs no sense of purpose , end of story . putting ideas in peoples heads theyre unwell
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