Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
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.
[image alt="Capture" src="http://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2017/09/capture-1008-296x235.jpg" width="296" height="235" class="alignnone" /end]
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.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
A great deal of the hardship arises from the world’s bully imposing sanctions for decades. They then have the neck to call for freedom.
@Anto Harris: yes yes true
Yes indeed, it always amazes me how people could ever be dissatisfied living under a Communist dictatorship with a very efficient security service who suppress and jail all political opposition and how many Irish people who profess to believe in freedom and democracy see them as ingrates and U.S. dupes for doing so. Funny how Cuba is always great for their holidays but they wouldn’t want to live there! And no, I don’t work for the CIA nor am I on their payroll but if they’re monitoring the Journal comments section then hey, I’m available and I’ve seen all the ‘Bourne’ and ‘Mission Impossible’ movies…
@William Tallon: the US has no moral authority to oppose dictatorships. It has allied with dictatorships for generations. It has allied with some dictatorships only to overthrow them after they have become less useful. The US has supported coups against democracies, and only occasionally against dictatorships, but in the latter only when useful to the US
When it gets involved it’s about power.
@john smith iv: Using that logic then most democratic countries today should just keep quiet about human rights abuses by dictatorships because of their own not too perfect history in that area. You’ve sort of proven my point. You seem to be suggesting that because you believe the US to be morally bankrupt that if it expresses support for people protesting a very repressive dictatorship that automatically makes those protesting extremely suspect and probably US agents or dupes. The bottom line is either you believe Cuba to be a repressive dictatorship and you support the right of its people to demand freedom and democracy or you don’t. I support them. I support freedom and democracy for all people even those in the US…
@William Tallon: I didn’t say “most democratic countries” now did I. That’s your straw man editorialising. I said the US. Nor did I say the protestors were dupes, you inferred that. The bottom line is that US has no moral authority to demand the end of dictatorships it disagrees with while propping up or supporting dictatorships or feudal kingdoms like Saudi Arabia.
@john smith iv: You’re perfectly correct, I mentioned them by way of contextualising and illustrating my point. No ‘strawman’ argument or editorialising. You’ve missed my point or as I think is more likely ignored it. I’ve made what I consider a totally logical inference by the way given your obvious and single-minded antipathy towards all things US which I think has affected you ability to make any sort of unbiased and meaningful point in relation to the current situation in Cuba. You still haven’t said whether you support the right of people in Cuba to protest and demand freedom and democracy. Your silence is interesting…
@William Tallon: well said man.
@William Tallon: When one looks at Cuba it’s unfair to compare the system to European democracies. When Castro took power in Cuba the vast majority of the population was illiterate and extremely impoverished with no medical system. Now illiteracy has practically been wiped out with a high standard of education for all, the medical system is one of the best in the world(despite American pharmaceutical being unable to supply it) and the vast majority of Cubans are happy with the political system despite the shortages they have to endure, mostly because of U.S. sanctions. When one compares life in Cuba to the rest of Latin America one can see the true progress it has made since the revolution . Why are the U.S. soo afraid to lift the sanctions?
@john smith iv: The US doesn’t need moral authority. It’s authority comes from the fact that it spends dollars and blood to exert whatever influence it deems necessary to achieve it’s goals. I am surprised they didn’t take care of Cuba when the Soviet Union fell. They missed the easiest opportunity then, but they are free to deal with Cuba now in whatever way they see fit.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell not urge the US to end the sanctions that are arguably the main cause of the economic crisis and shortages. Pretty hard to be prosperous when living under crippling sanctions.
Why does the ….
Ah ya its not like the US have ever interfered in Cuban affairs…. The whole bay of pigs fiasco… The fact Guantanamo bay is held hostage by the US. Castro has survived 634 assination attempts by all accounts…. Then there was the whole USAID sponsored social media outlet run by the CIA. I think I;ll finish with the yearly UN vote to lift US sanctions on Cuba that every nation is the world voted for except the US and Israel…..
The Yanks have been waiting to pounce and put a puppet government in Cuba for the past 60 years.
From Wikipedia.
1952 – 1959 the dictator Batista seized power with support from the United States. Batista suspended the 1940 Constitution and revoked most political liberties, including the right to strike. He presided over a stagnating economy that widened the gap between rich and poor Cubans. He placed most of the main industries including the sugar industry in U.S. hands, and foreigners owned 70% of the arable land. He negotiated lucrative relationships both with the American Mafia, who controlled the drug, gambling, and prostitution businesses in Havana, and with large U.S.-based multinational companies who were awarded lucrative contracts.
Rebels finally ousted Batista on 31 December 1958. Brutal US sanctions followed which are still active today.
Here’s Cuba, shows how dysfunctional it is, why people protest: https://youtu.be/wcseyA2aL8k?t=63
@David Jordan: just some guy walking around shops
@David Jordan: wanting Wexford strawberries in winter
@john smith iv: Is that really all you can garner from that video?
@Alan Watt: Yes because nappies, toilet rolls and ballcocks are seasonal….
@David Jordan: Wouldn’t be so bad if the US would lift the pointless sanctions they’ve been under since long before the Cold War ended. There was a vote to lift the sanctions recently, only two nations voted against, the USA and Israel… Over 180 voted to lift sanctions, that says it all.
@Alan Watt: “wanting Wexford strawberries in winter”
That is very intensive, once of the people interviewed was traveling around Cuba trying to find chemotherapy drugs for his son who has cancer.
@David Jordan: If Europe imposed sanctions here, we wouldn’t be far off that
I guess some influencal sectors of a near by nation wants their casinos and brothels back again.
have your say