Northern Ireland’s leading mental health charity, Action Mental Health (AMH), is delighted to announce their new charity partnership with McCartan Turkington Breen Solicitors (MTB), a full-service law firm in Belfast.
Action Mental Health is a charity that changes the lives of people living with mental health issues and promotes resilience and wellbeing to all sections of our community.
On announcement of the new partnership, Harry McAleese of McCartan Turkington Breen stated: “We decided to support this vital cause as part of our corporate social responsibility efforts in 2022. We know that many in our local communities have been adversely affected by the pandemic. Anything that we can do to raise both awareness of the mental health crisis and to raise money to support Action Mental Health with the vital work that they do is a positive step for change.”
In previous years, the firm has supported well-known local charities including AgeNI, Inspire Wellbeing and Addiction NI.
Throughout the year, McCartan Turkington Breen will implement several fundraising activities whilst actively promoting awareness of the mental health issues found at work and at home. The leading law firm intend to embark on a Paddle Board Challenge to kick off the partnership.
Action Mental Health have a timetable of activities suitable for people of all ages to get involved in. The charity highlights that it is always happy to work with corporate partners of all sizes to raise much needed funds and awareness of the work that they do.
Action Mental Health’s Samantha Coleman commented: ‘We are so delighted to have McCartan Turkington Breen Solicitors on our side for 2022. One in five of us will experience a mental health problem at some point in our lives and half of all problems start before the age of fourteen. Since the pandemic, the need is even greater and we are happy to be working with McCartan Turkington Breen on a series of fundraising events and awareness raising to highlight the important cause of mental health and to help fund our work.”
Action Mental Health’s specialist eating disorder service, AMH everyBODY benefits a great deal from its engagement with the local community.
This engagement not only helps to inform its specialist service remit regarding the particular needs of people living with eating disorders and their families, it also provides vital support to people in the Southern Trust and Health and Social Care Trust who avail of the service.
Through its preventative approach to eating disorder, the service engages with schools, sports clubs and community groups to to offer support and signpost signposting tpeople to the most appropriate support. In turn, in thanks of this support, beneficiaries like to give back and work collaboratively with AMH everyBODY to raise awareness and funds to support our work.
Among those to express their gratitude for the support of AMH everyBODY are the pupils of Sacred Heart Grammar School in Newry. Year 11 pupils, aged 14 and 15, are holding a sponsored walk for AMH everyBODY to help highlight the importance of prevention and awareness raising through the service’s effective BodyTalk programme.
Their initiative also aims to raise awareness of BodyTalk’s proactive approach of pupils and teachers in taking action on eating disorders.
AMH BodyTalk consists of interactive workshop within schools in the Southern Health and Social Care Trust area, which focus on:
eating disorders – the signs and symptoms, myths and misconceptions, causes and prevention, and where to go for support;
body image concerns amongst young people – the role of the media with fitness, beauty and diet industry, and how to be aware of dangers and challenge harmful body ideals;
building a body positive image through self-supporting skills of resilience and confidence building.
These workshops include clips from the Dove Self-Esteem campaign, https://www.dove.com/uk/dove-self-esteem-project.html along with interactive self-esteem group activities that offer opportunity for group discussions. Free of charge, the workshops have been received very positively by schools and colleges within the Southern Trust area.
AMH everyBODY delivers five week creative courses throughout the year to any clients with an ED engaging with the SHSCT ED team, or AMH everyBODY. The aim of the creative course is for clients to learn a new creative skill that will support their recovery, a development of their identity outside of their eating disorder. Through the course they will build resilience and confidence as creative strengths are drawn out in a safe and supportive environment.
During Eating Disorder Awareness Week 2022, participants on the most recent Creative Writing course have shared their views:
“I was honestly so surprised at what I was able to achieve when I stopped overthinking and put pen to paper. I was initially a bit nervous that everyone else would be better than me, or that I would be stuck for what to write but there was such a relaxed feel to the group and everyone was really supportive.”
“I look forward to Wednesday now every week because I never know what I’m going to come up with. Martelle is brilliant at guiding you through and building confidence in your abilities.”
“The course has given me something to focus on at home and actually feel proud of when I read over some of the things we’ve been working on.”
“I really lost myself a bit with my eating disorder and forgot what I actually enjoyed. This course has shown me what it feels like to experience joy again and do something that is just for me.”
This week it is Eating Disorder Awareness Week – when attention is turned on the difficult relationship that one in 50 people in the UK have with the substance on which life depends – food.
Led by BEAT, a national charity which supports people living with eating disorders, this year’s campaign turns the spotlight on the minimal specialist training that doctors receive to deal adequately with the complexity of eating disorders.
Action Mental Health’s specialist eating disorder service within the Southern Health and Social Care Trust area, AMH everyBODY, wholeheartedly supports this year’s focus. And in response, AMH everyBODY works to enhance knowledge and skills – by delivering eating disorder awareness training, specifically for health care staff. Additionally, AMH everyBODY worked in partnership with the Public Health Agency to advise on content for Mental Health First Aid
On the back of this year’s global campaign, AMH everyBODY is also looking inward, aiming to also steer attention to its clients’ voices – and their own personal experiences.
Keen to be seen for individuality and not merely be defined by their eating disorders AMH everyBODY clients have been turning literary to express themselves and help make sense of their world around them and their own particularly difficulties.
This week Action Mental Health will bring you wonderful examples of AMH everyBODY clients’ creativity, news of its vital work in schools and colleges, helpful insight from carers, tips on coping with eating disorders and with body image, plus much more.
As our younger children’s wellbeing comes under the spotlight during Children’s Mental Health Week, we wanted to share a few tips on how to best support their emotional growth through Action Mental Health’s Healthy Me programme. A specially designed programme geared towards to supporting and promoting better mental health among 8 to 11 year olds, it features fun, played based activities, such as the Emoji Game.
This is a fun and effective programme which employs the principals of a learning system used in autism education – helping those who have difficulties conveying their emotions, through pictures and illustrations.
Outside the field of autism education, it poses a great opportunity for children in mainstream education confront their own emotions that they might not yet be able to fully articulate.
Grounding is a powerful way to interrupt anxious thoughts in the present moment! It is an ideal way to deal with children’s anxieties and worries. As we emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic, it is understandable that children have absorbed extra worry from the media and the people around them. Perhaps they have experienced loss or illness in their own family, a school friend or a person they consider as a role model.
Although talking, journaling and other activities such as keeping worry dolls are a tried and tested way to overcome negative feelings, there are other practical ways to stay grounded.
5-4-3-2-1 Senses
Exercising the senses helps children to stay grounded. Depending on age this is an effective means to halt thought streams:
5 things you see
4 things you hear
3 things you smell
2 things you can touch
1 thing you taste
Or try an exercise with just ‘sight’.
5 colors I see
4 shapes I see
3 soft things I see
2 people I see
1 book I see
Be a tree
Few things are more grounded or rooted than a tree. “My feet are firmly planted” or “I can feel the ground under my feet.”
Power Hug
Firm pressure is reassuring and great for grounding. “I am safe now.” The child places their left hand on their right shoulder for a tap and then their right hand on their left shoulder for another tap. Then squeeze into a self hug and affirm – tap, tap, squeeze, affirm.
Here & now hand trace
Child traces a hand on paper. They can write down within the outline things they see in their surroundings.
Primary 2 and 3 pupils from Christ the Redeemer and Ligoniel primary schools in Belfast
Action Mental Health this week unveils a new mental health promotion programme for Northern Ireland’s primary school children as young as four.
The new programme, Little Healthy Me, is a vibrant and engaging, trauma-informed, mental health initiative aimed at building resilience in children in Primary One, Two, Three and Four.
Little Healthy Me explores emotional wellbeing issues, healthy lifestyle choices and pathways to effective support through imaginative and interactive play and song and has a strong focus on prevention and self-help.
The ground-breaking programme is unveiled during Children’s Mental Health Week which takes place from February 7-13, the theme of which is Growing Together.
Little Healthy Me was developed by Action Mental Health as part of the Our Generation project and is an extension of its hugely successful Healthy Me Programme for children in P5-P7, which has been running for several years. Our Generation is a cross-community, cross-border initiative whose motto is Growing Up Better Together, tying in with this year’s CMHW focus. Our Generation is a project supported by the European Union’s PEACE IV Programme, managed by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB). Match-funding has also been provided by the Executive Office in Northern Ireland and Irish Government.
The new programme is unveiled against a backdrop of growing need for better mental health services across Northern Ireland. The first year of the pandemic marked an 11% rise within one local health trust area, in those aged 18 and under, attending emergency departments for serious mental health issues, compared to 2019. Those statistics, gathered within the Western Trust, included a five-year-old child and another, aged nine.
Targeted at 4 to 7-year-olds in P1-P4, Little Healthy Me sessions are delivered to Northern Ireland’s school children through interactive and fun, three-hour workshops, offered over three sessions by Action Mental Health and Our Generation specialist project workers.
The mental health-enhancing Little Healthy Me sessions are delivered by Action Mental Health free of charge to participating schools thanks to the generosity of the local community which supports the charity through donations, fundraising and gifts in Wills. Public funding has also been received through Peace IV programme and match-funding through The Executive Office and Irish Government.
Action Mental Health also provides free Little Healthy Me sessions for school staff, parents and carers, to promote whole school and whole community approaches as the most effective way of improving wellbeing outcomes for children.
Children participating in Little Healthy Me explore the area of mental health through engaging activity workbooks with a focus on the promotion of social and emotional wellbeing through problem-solving; coping and resilience skills and challenging stigma and discrimination. The sessions further teach children how to seek help when needed and where to find support as well as supporting the transition to post primary school.
Middle pic (from left) Lynsey Stewart, principal of Ligoniel Primary School, Nicola McKeown, acting vice principal of Christ the Redeemer Primary School, with Action Mental Health’s Our Generation team member Rebecca Mitchell, AMH chief executive David Babington and AMH Our Generation team member Laura Euler, were joined by the children of Ligoniel Primary School and Christ the Redeemer Primary School for the launch of a brand new mental health and wellbeing programme for children from P1 to P4, Little Healthy Me.
Little Healthy Me uses evidence-based approaches to promote the importance of mental health with physical health, and teaches children how to understand and express feelings appropriately. It also encourages adults to think about their own mental health needs and those of the children they care for.
Northern Ireland’s Mental Health Champion, Professor Siobhan O’Neill praised Little Healthy Me, stating: “Preventative intervention programmes such as ‘Little Healthy Me’ make an important contribution to our efforts to improve mental health here in Northern Ireland. Importantly, Little Healthy Me is designed by experts and is evidence-based, using strategies that we know will create resilience. The theme of Children’s Mental Health Week is ‘Growing Together’, and ‘Little Healthy Me’ uses play to foster connection and build strong social and emotional awareness, which will better equip our children to cope with life’s difficulties and flourish.”
Lynsey Stewart, principal of Ligoniel Primary School in Belfast, applauded Little Healthy Me, stating: “Action Mental Health’s project workers delivered the Little Healthy Me programme to 97 children from P1 to P4, introducing topics on self-care, self-regulation and coping strategies in an engaging and age-appropriate manner.
“The children benefitted greatly from the delivery of the content, brought to life on illustrative paddle boards, and bespoke workbooks which continue to reinforce their learning after the completion of the programme. It’s an added advantage that the project workers were able to adapt their approach from the P1s right through to the older children in P4 in a thoroughly accessible manner.”
Nicola McKeown, acting vice principal of Christ the Redeemer Primary School, Belfast agreed, stating: “The ‘Little Healthy Me’ programme has had a profound impact upon the health and wellbeing of the children in our school. All children from years 1 to 4 participated in this excellent programme centring around the importance of a healthy mind and body. Such was the excellent delivery of the programme that our children are now equipped with a range of coping strategies that they can use when facing adversity.
“This awareness of their own mental health is evident in the language they use in classroom discussions and this can only have positive implications for our children’s future wellbeing. I would highly recommend this programme to all our other schools at a time when it is needed most.”
Action Mental Health’s Amanda Jones, Head of Resilience and Wellbeing Services explained the background to the programme. “Little Healthy Me is based on an existing mental health promotion programme – Healthy Me – which was designed to provide a preventative approach by raising awareness of mental and physical health and wellbeing amongst Key Stage Two children in the school setting.
“This approach is consistent with NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) public health guidance which highlights that ‘children’s social and emotional well-being affects not only their mental health but also their physical health and can determine how well they do at school’ (NICE, 2008).”
Little Healthy Me was developed in Northern Ireland through a collaboration between Action Mental Health (AMH) Our Generation and Donegal Youth Service (DYS) with expert input and direction from the Ulster University, Royal College of Psychiatrists (NI), Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS), Stranmillis University College, Andrews Memorial Primary School principal, Ralph Magee, AMH New Life Counselling’s Arts Therapist and PlayBoard NI.
Amanda Jones added: “We wish to extend our thanks to the working group for their valued contribution and ongoing support for our work to improve the wellbeing of children in Northern Ireland.”
To find out more about Little Healthy Me and how to book, please click here.
Findings from a recent Youth Wellbeing NI Survey found that one in six children and young people engaged in a pattern of disordered eating and associated behaviours that indicated the need for further assessment.
AMH everyBODY – which provides support to people living with an eating disorder and their family and carers across the Southern Trust area – found that the pandemic exacerbated the problem among young people.
Deborah McCready, Project Worker with AMH everyBODY said: “Anecdotally, we are hearing from parents, schools and pupils that during the pandemic young people have been more exposed to risk factors that could explain these findings.
“Eating Disorders can thrive in isolation and as a result of the pandemic young people had less access to their normal social support systems, yet more access to social media in isolation. Whilst social media isn’t the root cause of eating disorders, it can be a risk factor in developing low self-esteem, body dissatisfaction, increase in anxiety and negative thinking patterns through comparison.
“Through our AMH everyBODY BodyTalk workshop, we encourage critical thinking with social media usage and teach how to put protective tools in place to ensure it is used from a place of support and encouragement. The pandemic also resulted in a lot of media campaigns that centred around weight and food, from stockpiling during lockdown, to stigmatising language being used with coming out of lockdown and weight loss, that we heard routinely from clients that it was triggering to be exposed to.”
Deborah said the disruption to safety routines like creative outlets, hobbies, and clubs has also been a breeding ground for anxiety. “As a result of all of these risk factors we as a service have noticed that people contacting for support have been displaying more unwell and with more complex needs than previously experienced. This is where our positive working partnership with the Southern Health and Social Care Trust (SHSCT) Adult Eating Disorder team has been essential to ensure timely and appropriate support.”
HOPE
AMH everyBODY works closely with the SHSCTrust Adult Eating Disorder team to ensure comprehensive support programme advances a positive recovery journey.
AMH everyBODY has a key focus on prevention and early intervention regarding eating disorder and also works closely with local communities through schools, colleges, youth and sport organisations to achieve this through our BodyTalk workshop that looks at areas of eating disorders awareness, signposting to appropriate support, self-esteem and resilience building.
Figures from the Department of Health in 2020 show that for review appointments to eating disorder services rose by 40%. AMH everyBODY has also seen an increase in demand for support, not just from individuals presenting with an eating disorder, but also parents of children as young as 8 who are engaging with CAMHs, from teachers expressing concerns for pupils demonstrating disordered eating behaviours, and also pupils who have expressed the need for more eating disorder awareness raising workshops to address issues amongst their peers.
Whilst evidence does indicate that the pandemic has had an impact on young people and the prevalence of eating disorders we have also found that more people are self-referring and reaching out for support. Schools are also taking a more proactive and joint up approach that supports from all levels, from pupil to parents to teachers, and that through effective and early awareness raising we can remind everyBODY that it is never too early, or too late to seek support.
