This October, Lámha are proud to present a weekend of events to celebrate World Mental Health Week and Social Inclusion week on the 8th and 9th of October in North West Donegal.
PHEW! Positive Health and Emotional Wellbeing is a series of events aiming to create a movement of positive attitudes towards our own mental health, open dialogue to speak about mental ill health and help families and friends access information on the provision of services available in the community and accessible in the county.
The weekend includes workshops, talks and demonstrations from Majella O’Donnell/Donegal Mind Wellness, Bill Vaughan/Mental Health Ireland, Susan McFeely/Shine, Joanne Lindsay Butler/OURganic Gardens, Iain Miller/Unique Ascent, Liam Donnelly/West Donegal Mental Health, Marian Maguire/Grow, Speakers from Jigsaw and Eamon McGee/former Donegal Player and Gaelic football Pundit.
Events are happening in Aislann Rann na Feirste, Annagry Hall and CLG Naomh Muire Mullaghderg, on October 8th and 9th.
Details available on Facebook page ‘Lámha: Life Affirming Mental Health Action’, and also on Facebook events ‘PHEW: Positive Health and Emotional Wellbeing’.
For more information you can email lamhawellness@email.com
Come along to this weekend and make a change for your own wellness and for the collective wellness of your community. All events are free and everyone is welcome.
It takes a community to raise a child, but what does it take to raise a community?
Every day we hear people lamenting the death of community spirit. Though people might blame economics, or maybe social media, in truth, Donegal is an exception, and community spirit is alive and well in the north west! When our neighbour gets sick we visit or send messages of support.
When a family is grieving we gather together and offer a wall of comfort, a hot meal and a shoulder to cry on, and when times are good we rejoice and celebrate together.
Our communities are alive and kicking, with and without economics or social media. But one thing is lacking, and that is our ability to talk about and offer support to those with mental ill health.
Until recently mental ill health was an unspoken sickness.
The word ‘mental’ made us think of institutions and draconian treatment methods. But thankfully the tides are changing, and increasingly we are opening our hearts to friends, or they to us.
Celebrities like Bressie and our own Majella O’Donnell who have bravely spoken about their own issues have caused ripples in our silence and been the positive inspiration our communities need.
However, we still need to embrace our own mental health. We need to realise it is not something to fix when broken, instead, it is something we should nurture when healthy.
We should make care of our mental health a daily routine, part of our health check and something we talk about habitually to our family, friends and neighbours.
“The world will be saved by western women” The Dalai Lama Lámha: LIFE AFFIRMING MENTAL HEALTH ACTION is the brainchild of two local mothers Linda Uí Ghallchóir (PHEW Coordinator and Mental Health Advocate) and Maria Coleman (Yoga Instructor ‘Comhcheol Arts and Wellness’).
These ladies got together and decided it is time to build solid wellness foundations from the ‘bottom up’, within small communities.
Their aim is to research the potential for community groups to positively advocate for mental wellness and to make training available to support mental-health awareness within grassroots initiatives.
Lámha will also do workshops with children and adults aimed at building resilience and coping skills through yoga, art, mindfulness and music, as well as collaborate with established groups and charities working locally and nationally in the field of mental health.
Lamha’s core mission is to ensure communities start building an open dialogue on positive mental health, and they believe Donegal, with its community focus, can become a county blazing a trail into a new dawn of individual and social wellness.
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