Funding for NUI Galway Suicide Intervention Course Restored

Image c/o NUI Galway Students' Union

FUNDING for a suicide intervention training course that was discontinued in NUI Galway in October has been restored by the HSE.

The Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training programme was scrapped due to government cutbacks, but the decision was overturned following lobbying by the Students' Union.

Patrick Clancy, the university's Convenor for Arts, Social Sciences and Celtic Studies, has welcomed the decision to recommence the ASIST course but maintains more needs to be done. The initiative will now take place in February next year.

"I am very pleased to hear that the funding is available in 2013. In this academic year, over 50 people were due to be trained as part of this programme. However, due to the cutbacks, under 25 will now be trained . . . So, while I welcome the funding being continued in 2013, I respectfully demand that there is a second course for NUIG students put on in the latter half of the semester," Mr Clancy said.

"This course is provided at minimal cost to the HSE and it leads directly into saving the most vulnerable age group from suicide. Some 84 per cent of fatalities from suicide are male. The biggest sector susceptible to suicide is the 'male between 18 & 25' group," he added.

Mr Clancy has been lobbying all TDs in Galway, Mayo and Clare about the issue for the past three months. He also contacted An Taoiseach Enda Kenny who in turn brought the matter to the attention of Anne O'Neill, Business Area Manager with HSE West.

The ASIST course has been held on campus once a semester since 2009. Its aim is to equip participants, both students and staff, with the skills needed to provide suicide first aid for a person at risk. Over the past decade, 25,000 people have been trained in the programme nationally.

Minister for Health James Reilly confirmed the HSE's decision to re-allocate funding for the initiative last week. “The HSE acknowledges the great support they have received from the NUIG Students Union over the last number of years and plans to continue to work in partnership with the SU and deliver an ASIST workshop in NUIG in February 2013,” stated Minister Reilly.

The head of NUI Galway's Student Counselling Service has also welcomed the news, describing the initial decision to cut the programme as "short-sighted". "When authorities such as the HSE are pressed financially, training can seem like an easy cut to make," Bea Gavin commented. "The benefits from this course far outweigh the cost," she added.

Ms Gavin said she hoped the decision might lead to funding being granted for similar college-based initiatives aimed at mental health professionals. A STORM self-harm risk assessment and management training course for therapists took place in NUI Galway in January of this year but there are currently no plans for it to be re-run.

Information on ASIST is available on the National Office for Suicide Prevention website: www.nosp.ie. For further details on NUI Galway's free and confidential counselling services, contact 087-6644299 or counselling@nuigalway.ie. 


This article was also published in The Connacht Tribune and Student Independent News, NUI Galway's student newspaper.

HSE cutbacks force cancellation of NUIG suicide intervention programme

Image c/o NUI Galway Students' Union

THE CASH-STRAPPED HSE has abandoned a suicide intervention programme aimed at students in NUI Galway, after the Government opted to use €35 million allocated for mental health services to offset the massive health budget deficit.

The Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training course was due to take place in the college earlier this month but the initiative was scrapped as a direct result of HSE cuts brought on by the current economic situation.
 
The Students’ Union has been running the two-day ASIST course on campus once a semester since 2009, with 60 people attending annually. The course was provided free of charge by the HSE while the SU facilitated the enrolling of students.
 
Over the past decade, 25,000 people have been trained in the ASIST programme nationally, with 3,000 people taking part in the initiative so far this year.
 
Joanna Brophy, the course's co-ordinator at the university, has criticised its cancellation, saying it means dozens of students will now not be trained in suicide prevention skills. The HSE plans to deliver another ASIST workshop in NUI Galway in February 2013. "In the meantime we have worked with AWARE to bring the six-week free Living Life to the Full course to campus this semester," Ms Brophy stated.
 
A spokesperson for the HSE acknowledged "the great support" the organisation has received from the college's Students' Union in the past and blamed the ASIST cancellation on financial constraints imposed by the Government and the Troika. The body is seeking to save €26million in 2012 by making cutbacks in the areas of education, training and travel.
 
NUI Galway's Head of Counselling Bea Gavin has described the abandonment of the ASIST programme this semester as "very regrettable". "One of the great benefits of the training is that it encourages those who are concerned about vulnerable young people to talk to them openly about their feelings and to encourage them to seek help," she asserted.
 
In light of this development, the college’s Student Welfare Officer has called for increased mental health services at both local and national level.
 
Dami Adebari, who is also Vice President of the Students' Union, praised the counselling facilities available at the university and the success of their recent Mental Health Week but stated that more needs to be done to help those in trouble.
 
"When things get hard, we all have to take a hit," Mr Adebari stated. However, he feels the same rule should not apply in relation to psychiatric services - initiatives that have a proven track record of success. "These are people's lives at stake here," he said.
 
Ironically the SU has just announced that it has chosen a suicide prevention charity as one of the beneficiaries of its fundraising efforts during this academic year. Pieta House is a non-profit organisation that provides specialised treatment programmes for people who are dealing with suicidal thoughts or self-harming issues.
 
The charity plans to open its first western facility in Tuam next year. Some eighty per cent of their funding comes from public donations and the new centre is the result of an 18 month fundraising campaign led by local businessman John Concannon. The amenity will be located on Bishop Street and will serve Galway, Mayo and Roscommon.
 
"Suicide can happen to anyone and I want to ask everyone in NUI Galway to look out for their friends and classmates and get in contact with us if they think anyone may be in distress," Joan Freeman, Pieta House founder, stated.
 
For further details on NUI Galway's free and confidential counselling services, contact 087-6644299 or counselling@nuigalway.ie. Information about Pieta House is available here.


This article was also published in The Connacht Tribune and Student Independent News, NUI Galway's student newspaper.

Hat's Off: Without Music, Life Would Be a Mistake

Image c/o FattyPolitic.Tumblr.com

"DEAR GOD, this cannot be happening." I was en route to Dublin to run my first marathon when it dawned on me that I had forgotten my headphones. As far as I was concerned, I might as well have come without my legs.

I can't get through an ordinary day without music, let alone a day like this. I had spent the previous weekend transforming my iPod into a conveyor of extremely aggressive audio. My playlist was an eclectic mix of protest performers: anti-war campaigners, jilted lovers, people who include 'shouting loudly' among the upper echelons of a list of their pastimes - that sort of thing. It was so full of angst, any self-respecting death metaller would have high-fived me and become momentarily happy upon hearing my songs shuffle.

After a slight nervous breakdown, the beard of Zeus came through and my driver discovered a spare pair of emergency ear phones in the car. In actual fact it was my sister's boyfriend but, for argument's sake, let's imagine I have a chauffeur - it makes me feel important, like I'm Dana or something. So, thankfully, the organisers didn't have to cancel the race and tell some 14,000 people to kindly feck off home as "Órla needs music to function". Twenty six miles later and my ears were still scared and feet still moving - due, in no small part, to Korn's back catalogue.

There are few things in life that the majority of human beings have in common. One exception to this rule is the age-old and omnipresent art form of music: it breaks down boundaries, frees the mind and moves body and soul like nothing else. Musical snobbery is commonplace but, screw it, listen loudly and proudly to whatever the hell you like. I have no time for this 'guilty pleasure' bullshit. Unless your favourite sound is that of a puppy whimpering while you kick it - or, you know, something equally awful like Coldplay - you shouldn't feel remotely remorseful about your aural choices.

Music transports a person like nothing else. When I hear Boston's More Than a Feeling, I instantaneously become a member of the Scrubs air band. For the five minutes that This Must be the Place plays, there is nothing in this world but love and dancing around  lampshades. While James Brown hollers through my speakers, I am sex machine, damn it. And when I'm running and Eye of the Tiger kicks in, Sylvester Stallone ain't got nothin' on me. Music can be informative, too: The Bad Touch imparted by the Bloodhound Gang almost single-handedly provided the sexual education of countless pupils at the turn of the millennium. 

Music invokes emotions and triggers memories. A recent study at London's Imperial College highlighted the potential it has in aiding the rebuilding of neurological functions of stroke patients. When Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head by a lone gunman in Arizona in 2011, she was left without the ability to talk. The politician utilised music-based therapy to regain her speech. Michael De Georgia, an expert in the pioneering field of music-centred medicine, admitted that in the past many people viewed music as superfluous: "No one understood why it developed from an evolutionary standpoint." "We are just starting to understand how powerful music can be. We don't know what the limits are," he added.

Music freedom is one of the many subconscious liberties we are blessed with in the western world. Islamist militants recently banned music in northern Mali, a country famed for its diverse musical heritage. A world without music simply does not bear thinking about. A tuneless society would fail. We're married to music - it sticks in out heads, lodges itself under our skin and becomes a significant presence in our lives, either overtly or subtly.

Music does not discriminate. A case in point is the relatively modern phenomenon of the silent disco. There are few sights more beautiful than that of a supposedly silent room full of people of every shape, size and style moving independently, yet in unison. Here we are different, here we are equal. As Nietzsche once put it: “Without music, life would be a mistake.”

As for those of us who love it but can't make it, Kurt Cobain once said: "The choice to become a music journalist is usually after one's realisation that they are musically retarded but they've worked at Tower Records and own a lot of CD's and rock biographies." I refute this claim outright: I don't like to brag but I was hailed as 2012's 'Rising Star' at last month's inaugural Irish Musical Spoons Awards; I got fired from HMV after a two-hour shift for trying to eat a box set of Man Vs Food and, as is clearly evident from this column, I am largely illiterate. Luckily, my hearing is fine.


This article was also published on Campus.ie and in Student Independent News, NUI Galway's student newspaper.

Time For An End To Closet Homophobia

Image c/o OutNews.co.uk

SEXUAL ORIENTATION is often viewed as irrelevant in western society, particularly in the eyes of young people. Despite this, sexuality-centred bullying and the use of gay-related derogatory termas are alarmingly common. Is this immature name-calling nothing more than just that or does it signify something more insidious? In Ireland, homosexuality was only decriminalised nineteen years ago. As a nation, do we still hold on to outdated but deep-rooted prejudices or is homophobia a part of our past?

Undoubtedly, this country has come a long way where the issue of gay rights in concerned. Mary McAleese's recent declaration of support for marriage equality will go down as a momentous occasion in Irish history. The former president, who is an active member of the Catholic Church, stated that gay people should be able to live their lives on their own terms and marry if they so choose. "I just think that people have this obsession somehow around sexuality with the idea of sex, forgetting what it is that family and partnership is about - it's about love and being there for another human being," she said.

Ciara Keighron (18) agrees with this stance. "Love is love, it doesn't matter who it's for. You can't say one person's love is better than another's," she says. Ciara is openly gay at college but her family do not know the truth about her sexuality. She cites fear as the main reason for this as "certain members of my family and friends definitely won't accept it". She has not experienced a lot of discrimination in Galway but recalls one particular occasion where a drunk man called her and a friend "f***ing lesbos" on a night out. She feels homophobes should not use alcohol as an excuse to disguise their bigotry as the truth often comes out when people have been drinking. "It's a case of idiots saying things, as opposed to idiots thinking things," she remarks.

Seán Reilly (21) came out two years ago. A close friend of his had actually come out in the months preceding this and he was the first person he told. He began to question his sexuality around the age of 14 but was not comfortable enough to come out while at school. He is a firm believer that our education system is doing a disservice to Irish society by not teaching children more about the various types of sexuality. He also thinks the government need to "remove the barriers" currently stopping gay people from marrying and adopting. "I would like to think that [gay marriage] will be legal by the time I want to marry," he adds.

Kealan Moore (30) would also like marriage and children to feature in his future. He has been sure of his sexuality for some time but did not come out publicly until last year. "I had been struggling with it for years and I tried to come out when I was 18 but, at the time, I just didn't have the proper social structure around me," he says.  Although most people received the news well, his housemate did not and he almost ended up homeless as a result. "You learn that you can't live with certain people," he muses. He admits that coming out can be a huge learning curve for both the person themselves and those close to them.

Ian Power, of youth-centred charity SpunOut, agrees that telling people is not always easy but, if you choose someone you trust, the chances are they will be supportive. "Coming out as LGBT can be a hugely positive experience – a liberating time, when you embrace your sexuality. Whatever your sexual identity, remember it is only one part of your life, so embrace how you are feeling and enjoy being individual," he says.

He believes that Ireland has made significant progress in battling homophobia in the last ten years alone. "Society is much more accepting of LGBT people across all generations. We still have a long way to go and prejudice still exists in dark corners of society and the LGBT community is still fighting for many legal protections and rights which still have not been recognised by the state but my view of Ireland is certainly a positive one," he affirms.

Figures released earlier this month by the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network show that every county in Ireland has now hosted a civil partnership ceremony, with 862 couples entering into such partnerships since they were first legalised in April 2011. A recent 'Sunday Times' poll suggested that 66 per cent of people in Ireland are in favour of same-sex marriage. Sexuality is a single aspect of a multi-dimensional person - it does not define them, nor should it define their rights or the way they are treated. Ireland, it would seem, is now more aware of this fact than ever before. 


This article was also published in Student Independent News, NUI Galway's student newspaper.

Hat's Off: I Post, Therefore I Am

Image c/o GetLucid.net

THE OTHER day I was watching a video online and it was so funny I literally fell off my seat and began to roll on the floor. This was all strange enough until I started to laugh. I laughed to the extent that my ass actually fell off. As you can imagine, I was rather alarmed by this incident. Despite my posterior predicament, in that very moment I couldn't help but wish there was a more succinct way to express what had happened to me.

While I waited in the hospital for my a-hole keyhole surgery, I had a bit of time on my hands and got to thinking about the internet and its effect on us. We now live in the age of so-called 'Digimodernism' (thanks, Alan Kirby), where, for some reason, it's become acceptable - and often expected - to document almost every waking moment of our existence. 

It's a fair enough assumption that one would want to share significant moments in their lives with their family and friends. The meaning of the word 'significant' can vary greatly, however. I can't remember the last time I thought, "Jeez, thank god Karen posted that she just ate a sandwich for lunch. I was beginning to suspect she sourced her energy through photosynthesis. What a fool I feel upon discovering the truth. She is, in fact, not a plant. OMG." Karen's a notorious liar so, in order for people to believe her statement, she also feels the need to upload a photograph of said sandwich. The inclusion of an image was of particular benefit to me as, up until that point, I had never actually seen one before. I mean I knew they were edible but I just assumed it consisted of some sand sprinkled on a potato wedge. The internet really is expanding my horizons.

To be fair, Karen is as innocuous as she is irritating. There are many people who use social networking sites and other online forums for much more malicious reasons. E-bullying and trolling are huge areas of concern both abroad and closer to home - as was elucidated by Leo Traynor's recent encounter with his anti-semetic cyber persecutor. The anonymity shield provided by the internet bestows bravery on pathetic, insecure idiots who have nothing better to do with their time than torment innocent people they've never met and know relatively nothing about.

Online arguments are ten-a-penny and, in the main, entirely harmless - even when one takes Godwin's Law into account. Trolls from 2012 are very different their 1990s namesakes. Although, for all we know, they could well be bulbous, asexual creatures with illuminous spiky hair. Instead of hiding under bridges, they secrete themselves in the bottomless recesses of the internet. They come in all shapes and sizes - at best, they're annoying; at worst, they have the potential to ruin someone's life. They can mock, stalk or ogle an almost infinite number of people. Reddit's 'creepshot' and 'jailbait' sub-forums are paradigms of the latter. This lascivious online behaviour encourages the objectification of women who have often been photographed surreptitiously and many of whom are underage.

The internet connects people in a colossal and unprecedented way - for better or worse. It opens up the entire world for exploration, education and entertainment. It also provides a springboard of unprecedented potential for perverts. As Yeats might say, a terrible beauty is born, photographed, uploaded, tagged, shared, mocked, de-tagged, deleted and posted once more. Once online, always available.

I recently rejoined Facebook for practical reasons following a two and a half year period whereby I was most definitely conspicuous by my absence. Had I died? Been mauled by bears? Returned to my home planet? Without a profile to check, how could anyone possibly know? At one stage there was a somewhat plausible rumour that I never actually existed. I post, therefore I am. I do not post, therefore I am odd.

One can change how they speak and look and, ultimately, who they are when online. I had first-hand experience of this when my South Korean mail-order bride arrived and she was, in fact, a 40 stone guy from Minnesota called Randy to whom I'm now legally bound. I can't complain too much though, we do lol a lot. We're not alone in this regard, either. Initially online abbreviations were for internet use only but now they've infiltrated our spoken vernacular. Many people say the term 'lol' as opposed to actually laughing. I'm sorry but that is just plain weird. So many of us are lolling on a regular basis, Huckleberry Finn would be proud.

If I could pass on one piece of netiquette: the next time you feel the urge to sneeze or wank (verbally or literally) and want to tell the world -  don't. Grab a tissue, not your laptop. FFS. 


This article was also published on Campus.ie and in Student Independent News, NUI Galway's student newspaper.

Ireland's Children: Second Class Citizens?

c/o Barnardos.it

THE ERA of treating Ireland's children as "second class citizens" could and should soon be over. 

This is the view of Fergus Finlay, CEO of Barnardos and long-time children's rights activist, on the upcoming Children's Referendum. Mr Finlay is one of the most vociferous supporters of the referendum.

He feels the constitutional amendment, if ratified, will aid in ending the current situation in Irish society whereby children are often treated as sub-par members of the community. 

He is firmly of the belief that such a referendum is long overdue and he admits to being continually frustrated by "the notion of a society that pays lip service to equality". He made the comments while speaking at NUI Galway this week.

The amendments to the Constitution proposed in the referendum aim to ensure that all children are recognised in their own right; protected from abuse and neglect; and will benefit from equal rights and protections, regardless of the marital status of their parents.

Mr Finlay is all too aware that parental neglect is by no means the only form of abuse faced by children.

He cites the Ryan and Murphy Commissions - both of which dealt with the sexual and physical abuse of children in Ireland at the hands of the Catholic Church - as evidence that the State is "adept at turning a blind eye" to the institutional and systematic abuse of children.

Barnardos, Ireland's leading children's charity, runs over 40 centres in local communities across the country, working with vulnerable children and their families. Their only direct facility for adults is the Barnardos Service for Survivors of Abuse.

The aforementioned reports are not alone in exposing state and institutional corruption. Mr Finlay notes the importance of the media in shining a light on the gross misconduct that permeated so many aspects of Irish culture for a prolonged period. 

He views the work of the late Mary Raftery as a prime example of the huge impact a journalist can have on societal change. Her documentaries for RTÉ - States of Fear (1999) and Cardinal Secrets (2002) - led to the setting up of the aforementioned commissions. In doing so, Mr Finlay feels they aided in bringing the 'kissing the ring' culture in Ireland to a halt, whereby the Government bowed before the Church in an unapologetic and widely unquestioned manner that led to the horrific abuse of approximately 100,000 children.

Barnardos is funded by the state to a "bog standard level", according to Mr Finlay. The organisation bridges the financial gap between the money they receive and the money they need through fundraising. In 2011, they recorded losses of €1.5 million, following a nine per cent decline in donations. Total revenue at the charity fell from €24 million to €23.9 million, while employee costs increased from €16.9 million to €17.1 million.

In a bid to save money, the charity closed all its services and put its staff on unpaid leave for one week last August. Mr Finlay has warned that the funding cuts being imposed across the NGO sector have the potential to do “untold damage” to vulnerable children and families.

It seems quite the juxtaposition that the State is attempting to improve the lives of its children with the referendum while concurrently cutting vital funding for the organisations that aim to end the chronic poverty in which many of them struggle to survive. Unfortunately, it seems likely that some of our young people will remain second class citizens for the foreseeable future.

Royal Breasts - Should We Courtesy?

Image c/o Take 40

BREASTS - you've got to love them. They give us milk, they keep Page 3 girls feed and, er, clothed, and, if you're a member of Cornershop, they provide a convenient pillow when tired. 

Perhaps more importantly than any of these, they sell newspapers and magazines. 

Unless your only contact with the world of publications is a subscription to Toothpick Bulletin, seeing two-dimensional breasts is a regular occurrence.  

Most of us are presented with an array of scantily clad women, and occasionally men, when perusing mainstream media. That doesn't make it right or wrong, merely commonplace. The fact that the public are so desensitised to nudity is a double-edge sword - and, let's face it, no one wants one of those around when naked. 

On a daily basis, you're quite likely to see some class of breast in whatever form of media you digest - pop star boob, actress boob, man boob. Recently, however, there a significant sighting to report - the rarest of all mammary gland creatures: royal boob. 

When topless photographs of England's future queen surfaced in French magazine Closer, not too many Irish eyelids batted. Their subsequent publication in the Irish Daily Star and ramifications of such were an entirely different story. 

The public reaction varied from apathy to anger. The fact that the images of a blissfully unaware Kate Middleton were taken in such a clandestine fashion led many to question the ethics of printing them. Yes, they were freely available online but was there sufficient public interest to publish the photographs in a national daily newspaper? 

It is noteworthy that the only other European publication to have printed the pictures - so far - is Italy's Chi. The magazine, which produced a special edition featuring a 26-page spread of a semi-nude Kate, is owned by Mondadori, the media conglomerate of one Silvio Berlusconi - bastion of all that is good and virtuous.

From an Irish perspective, Richard Desmond's announcement to seek a dissolution of the partnership of his company Northern & Shell and Independent News and Media (joint owners of the Irish Daily Star) was met with widespread shock and condemnation. The fact that the owner of illustrious titles such as The Very Best of Mega Boobs and Spunk Loving Sluts appeared so very horrified by the inclusion of the photos in a newspaper he was associated with would have been laughable were over one hundred Irish jobs not at stake. 

Desmond's reaction could be described as disproportionate. It could also be described as a convenient cover. The contract between Northern & Shell and INM is nearing its end and many commentators believe he has wanted to leave the Irish market for some time and is using this storm in a B cup as his way out. 

When questioned about ethics by the Leveson Inquiry in January of this year, Desmond responded: "Ethical – I don't know what the word means". Apparently, he's become acquainted with a dictionary since then.

In the immediate aftermath of the scandal, the British royal family took the unprecedented step of suing a media outlet over privacy issues, bringing Closer to court. The magazine has been banned from printing further topless photographs of Kate and has been ordered to hand over the original copies of the images and compensate the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge for their legal fees.

It remains to seen as to whether or not the royal couple will take legal action against the Irish Daily Star. For now, its editor Michael O'Kane has been suspended and the rest of the employees' livelihoods hang in the balance. What happens next is anyone's guess.

So, alas, it looks as though we're heading back into another royal nudity drought. Although, we'll always have Harry. God save the third in line.