Towards Improving Youth Mental Health - Annual Report 2018

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TOWARDS IMPROVING YOUTH MENTAL HEALTH ANNUAL REPORT 2018 introducing a Environmental Protection Policy for 2019 with moves to less printed materials and an increase in use of recycled papers where printing is a necessity. 3.1.4 Impact of insurance cost increase Insurance is a necessity for the protection of the charity, its personnel and volunteers. We are starting to notice a significant increase in insurance costs since 2017 although the charity has made only a single accidental damage claim since we started our policy in 2011. Although the Schools Programme is run under separate liability insurance the costs of that policy are also starting to rise. We will be working to secure reduced insurance costs for 2019 without reducing our cover. 3.2 Mobile Crisis Service When we visit schools and colleges one of the most frequent concerns raised by teachers and management is the availability of mental health services for referral. Most teachers are not trained in mental health awareness techniques and school guidance counsellors are often over-stretched particularly around exam time which is a high risk mental health period especially amongst Leaving Cert students. Our special project for 2019 is to raise funds to purchase and run Ireland’s first free mobile youth crisis service. This will be an amazing new, innovative, social project that will bring immediate benefits to young people and their families around Ireland. Project planning is ongoing and we are hoping to have an implementation plan available for the Trustees in January 2019. 3.3 Online Certificate Course We have been working on creating our full School Programme into a online certificate course on the Teachable platform. The course is based on our schools programme, and although aimed at students 16+, it can be accessed by adults as well. All the school programme materials are now integrated into the course and we have used the lesson plans and worksheets as the basis of the 9 skill levels within the course. The completion of the schools video [3.1.2] will provide the final part of the certificate course and we should be able to start accepting students in time for the 2019 school year. 3.4 Mental Health Champion Programme The Trustees have proposed that a new Mental Health Champion Programme be developed and implemented to follow on from the Online Certificate Course. Mental Health Champions would be students who have completed the Online Certificate and promote the principles of good mental health in their schools and community. We are working on developing this concept for roll-out in September 2019. 3.5 Outreach Programmes Technology is improving and changing every year and we will be working to update our online services and keep them secure. Our main server will be upgraded in 2019 to provide more reliable and faster access for mobile based services. This will also increased data security and backup options. 3.5.1 Social Media Development We are planning to recruit a volunteer social media coordinator who can move our social media to the next level. At the moment we are dealing with a knowledge deficit amongst our team on social media YOUTH SUICIDE PREVENTION IRELAND PAGE 20
TOWARDS IMPROVING YOUTH MENTAL HEALTH ANNUAL REPORT 2018 and this needs to be addressed to keep our information services accessible and relevant. We are planning to develop our Twitter and Instagram presences with more frequent tweets and posts. 3.5.2 New Crisis Information App We have started development in-house of a new Crisis Information app for iOS and Android platforms which will be better able to provide geo-located information on local services than the existing web app. 3.5.3 Geo-location of ineedhelp.ie We are also working to improve the indeedhelp.ie website geo-location service to ensure more accurate positioning for local services and sage places. This is device dependant but we feel that the reliability on all devices can be significantly improved. 3.6 Awareness Events Our Awareness Events Programme for 2018 has been an amazing success. In 2019 we would like to focus on more youth based locations such as gamer conventions, youth forums and mental health awareness events. 3.6.1 In-Store We will be continuing the in-store awareness events targeted at parents and adults as they have been very successful and require only a small team. In 2018 the events were located close to our bases in Cork and Killarney but we are planning to expand that network in 2019 to include more counties in Connaught and the North-East. 3.6.2 External Events Most of our awareness team volunteers are 18-26 and we feel that they can be a great help in attending younger events where the charity can gain access for an awareness stand. We have been invited to provide awareness teams at a lot of concerts, festivals and other events when we did not have younger team members available so for 2019 we anticipate accepting more of these type of invitations. 3.6.3 Volunteer Events We will continue to support and promote volunteer led events around the country ensuring that the volunteers are fully aware of our programmes and policies. We already supply numerous volunteer events with materials and we will continue this practice but try and emphasis the promotion of our online resources as well. PAGE 21 YOUTH SUICIDE PREVENTION IRELAND
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