THE RIGHT Here Fermanagh project has been the backbone in helping improve young people’s mental health across the county and strives to challenge the stigma and misunderstanding attached to mental illness.
The vast majority of young people involved in the project say they don’t have the skills to cope with everyday life or feel they don’t have a purpose often leaving them in a state of poor mental health, something which Eliz McArdle aims to stamp out.
“There’s such a fear of mental illness,” says Eliz, who is the co-ordinator of Right Here Fermanagh and Team Leader within the gender equality for Northern Ireland.
“People are afraid of being asked how their mental is. But mental health is the same as physical health – we all have to learn skills to improve it. Mental health is something we all have and people have to learn that it’s not an illness.
“We live in a world where there’s a disease to please. Young people are afraid to fail and are paralysed into feeling they have to achieve and they’re afraid of the stigma if they don’t. It’s internal pressure from society.”
The Right Here Fermanagh team targets young people from disadvantaged communities, young parents and young people who are outside of education, employment or training.
The small team of youth workers give the participants a sense of purpose and attempt to tap into strengths unknown to them through a range of activities including fishing and art work.
Eliz says that youth unemployment is detrimental to local people’s health and believes there is a high depression rate among unemployed 16 to 25-year-olds.
She highlighted a number of issues impacting on local young people including emigration, isolation and suicide and how society’s attitude makes it difficult for youth to voice their worries.
“Fermanagh is hit really badly by young people emigrating and before they leave what sort of turmoil are young people going through in that they feel they have to go to Australia and that’s what they leave behind,” she added.
“How much turmoil are you in that you have to make that very difficult decision to leave when you might not even be that great at making big decisions. The impact that has on families who feel like who’s left and the difficulty of being separated from their loved ones. I would worry about the long term effect that would have on a community. It’s very hard to come back- it’s painful for families and communities to see that.”
The project team also work with a number of people who have been affected by suicide issues, whether it’s been suicidal thoughts or attempted suicide.
With mental health issues on the rise, Eliz has called for people and community workers to be trained on how to handle suicide.
“It’s a really liberating thing that if you can ask someone are you having suicidal thoughts, and that feels liberating for them to say yes. It’s a powerful thing for young people to respond to and it’s a question they have been waiting for.”
You can contact Right Here Fermanagh on 028 6632 8534.
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