Meath Partnership closing the gaps in community-based mental health

In 2019, Meath Partnership identified a “significant gap” in the community-based mental health and wellness services that were available.
The local development company pitched the idea of a ‘Wellness Hub’, to help people struggling with depression and anxiety to engage with their community, and to work on issues such as stress management and self-esteem.

The ‘Meath Wellness Hub – Closing the Loop on Social Inclusion’ project – to give it its full title – was launched after extensive research, including a needs assessment focused on SICAP target groups.

The initiative quickly proved invaluable to the local community, however the funding ceased on December 31, 2023 and was not renewed. It initially received funding through the Dormant Accounts Fund as a three-year pilot project covering 2020 to 2022, and this was extended for an additional year into 2023.

Under the new SICAP programme 2024-2028, Meath Partnership has introduced many of the same services under its Folláine programme, but has had to scale back the service due to lack of funding.

SICAP and health

Monica Nelson, social inclusion programmes manager with Meath Partnership, told Changing Ireland: “Back in 2019, we saw a lot of the referrals we were getting from SICAP were for employment, education, or social engagement. But when we were meeting with them, we were discovering that mental health was a major issue; it was one of the biggest barriers they had.

“Meath is historically underfunded with SICAP. So we approached the Department to say: ‘This is coming up time and time again and we would love to be able to submit a programme that would support that’. The idea was to help people to make their appointments, sustain education, sustain their engagements in the community. Really it came from just the needs that we are seeing from our clients through SICAP, and unfortunately, mental health still seems to be a huge barrier.”

The current Folláine programme (Irish for wellness) helps prepare people for engaging in employment, education, or volunteering opportunities.

The community workers recognise the barriers relating to mental health that must be overcome before people can engage society, the world of work and education.

“So the first thing that we do is support them with that,” explained Monica.

“For example, the girls (Meath Partnership staff) may go into someone’s house, because they might be so anxious that they’re afraid to leave the house. Bit by bit they’ll get them to come out. It might just be to go for a coffee, or just go a little bit up the road, maybe sit on a park bench, then eventually they engage in one-to-one support, or intergroup work.”

The work involves supporting people to reintegrate into society and into employment or education.

“We do a lot of soft skills development, like personal effectiveness or even personal professional development. And we offer WRAP, the Wellness Recovery Action Plan. We have people trained to deliver that. We ensure the person has their own Wellness Recovery Action Plan, so that when they do get a job or whatever, they have a plan, because quite often when someone has a job, they forget to go for their walk, or forget that talk therapy is what kept them well. Having the plan, they can look back on it and remember how to stay well basically.”

She continued: “We offer WRAP and wellness workshops. That’s probably the biggest thing the Hub did, and Folláine will continue doing. We run a lot of workshops in second level schools, and also to various target groups. We tailor the workshops to whatever we see the need for in the community.”

“So beneficial”

The former Meath Wellness Hub had funding to employ two psychotherapists, enabling it to provide in-house counselling services.
Monica remarked: “The difference that the hub had that we don’t have in Folláine is the hub had two staff psychotherapists, and unfortunately that is not available now.”

Now, anyone in need of counselling must be referred to external services and Folláine is able to offer some financial support for people to get counselling if they need it.

She said that the Meath Wellness Hub received “fantastic feedback”.

“I was very, very disappointed that the pilot project ended and because it was so beneficial, that’s why we brought it in under SICAP. We don’t want to lose it,” she said.

Does she think there should be more wellness hubs around Ireland?

“Definitely. So many people contacted us to ask: ‘How did you come about? How did you get funded?’. The new SICAP programme started in January. So there may actually be other local development companies that have brought in a wellness support programme under SICAP, but there wasn’t any other one that had a specific hub for wellness.”

Hoarding a surprise

Surprisingly, one mental health issue in particular emerged as a major problem in Meath Partnership’s catchment area.

“We do a lot of house clearouts, and we do that under a clinical lead. We get a lot of hoarders; I didn’t know that was such a problem, but it is a huge problem. We get a huge amount of referrals for hoarding. We link in with the HSE team and collaborate with them. We wouldn’t just do a clearout when it is a hoarding issue; there is actually a need for a clinical lead, to say whether it should or should not happen.

“Again that would be funded under SICAP, whether we need a skip or whatever. We do that in collaboration with the HSE, or sometimes even the local authority depending on where the referral comes from,” Monica explained.

Homelessness

Sadly, but perhaps inevitably during a housing crisis, there is a large cohort of people seeking support from Folláine who are homeless, or at risk of losing their home.

Says Monica: “We get a lot of people that are living in danger of homelessness or are already in emergency accommodation. We work with them on their wellness while they’re going through that.

“Another aspect would be delivering wellness support to people living in accommodation centres (direct provision). You really start to see people’s mental health drop after even 90 days there.”

She said the support is very practical, ranging from providing yoga classes to sound baths.
“And we’ve done a lot of forest walks. We engage subcontractors as well to come in and do talks with people.”

All walks of life

Monica says the Folláine clients come from “all walks of life”.

“The target groups would generally fall under the same target groups that SICAP have, but in reality that’s so broad. For example, we had things like menopause support, because we were seeing so many women on a one-to-one basis saying they didn’t have anywhere to go, anyone to talk to about it.

“We don’t deal with major clinical mental health difficulties. It is really about anxiety, depression, and things that social support can help. (We work with) everyone, from migrants, young people in education, long term unemployed, people with disabilities, to older people. We can work with anyone aged 16 up.

“We get people who are working as well, and they are just finding life hard. We’re just giving them that little bit of support to get through the day,” concluded Monica.