Staff at Nua Healthcare celebrate World Mental Health Day 2019
On October 10th Nua Healthcare Staff and Service Users joined with people across the world in celebrating and promoting World Mental Health Day. Colleagues and service users alike chose to wear green in observance of this very special day and across a number of services a range of activities took place.
Within Nua we had 3 bake sales that ran simultaneously across the country. One was organized by our Mental Health Approved Centre (Cois Dalua, Co. Cork), the second in our Mental Health Community Residence (Teach Folláine, Co. Kildare) and the third in our Head Office, The Atrium. Little Island Day Service in County Cork also got involved and similarly our Fairgreen Day Services in Portlaoise lent their support to the bake sale in Teach Folláine.
All other services in Nua pledged their support by getting a baked treat from the bake sales and making a donation in return. We chose Mental Health Ireland, a fitting charity, to receive the funds raised this year. Mental Health Ireland were delighted to be chosen as the charity we wished to support and as a symbol of their thanks they sent over T-shirts, a bunch of bookmarks and various leaflets for us to promote on the day.
On the day all throughout Nua were looking well in their green! Photos began to pour in for social media of different people across Nua Services celebrating and promoting the day, one even went as far as Spain! The bake sales were ready, filled with fabulous baked creations. At Head Office, staff were lining up to get their mid-morning treat and the donation box was filling up quickly. H.R.’s Catherine Brophy and Clodagh Roche very kindly organised the morning bake sale. In the previous few days up to the bake sale they arranged the baking of several nice treats along with other staff in Head Office.
Little Island Day Services hosted the bake sale for Cois Dalua and various services were popping in throughout the morning to support the fundraising there. A very well done to the Staff and Service Users in Cois Dalua who prepared many fancy treats for their bake sale as well as Little Island Day Services.
Teach Folláine was buzzing all throughout the day and there was plenty of activity there with people from various services dropping in to support the guys there. Staff Member Elaine Brennan had prepared many beautiful treats for the bake sale and Service Users David and Ciara dropped in with the support of their staff to sell these treats to Nua’s Clinic and at The Atrium during the morning.
As part of the celebrating and promoting of World Mental Health Day 2019, Teach Folláine held a tree planting ceremony accompanied with a plaque created by Nua’s Chapel View Day Services. The plaque read “Teach Folláine Est June 2019” with the recovery symbol accompanying the text. The English translation from Irish of Teach Folláine means “House of Wellbeing”. Our Director of Mental Health Services (JJ Carey) was on hand to officially plant the new tree along with the help of Service Users and the Staff of Teach Folláine.
Following this, Supervalu in Sallins dropped off a fabulous buffet of various hot food treats for all at Teach Folláine and Nua Staff Member Michael from Springfield supplied music for all to enjoy. It was a wonderful day of celebration and observance across Nua. World Mental Health Day has a very special meaning to us all here in Nua and we are privileged to support those within our Mental Health Services. We will be announcing in the days to come the final amount of money that has been raised for Mental Health Ireland, a national voluntary organisation which was established in 1966 as the Mental Health Association of Ireland and whose aim is to promote positive mental health and wellbeing to all individuals and communities in Ireland. Watch this space!