This article is from page 8 of the 2014-09-02 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 8 JPG
A LOCAL man who advocates for one of the country’s largest suicide prevention services has paid tribute to the generosity of Clare people.
Tom McEvoy said support given by people in the Banner County is a key reason why Pieta House has been able to expand its services in the West and throughout Ireland.
“Clare people are unbelievable at supporting Pieta,” he said.
Mr McEvoy continued, “We had a great darts night there recently in the Grove Bar in Roslevan, run by Kieran Reidy. I’d like to publicly thank him very much for doing that for his huge efforts. It was huge success. There was nearly € 2,300 raised. For Pieta, that will go straight into therapeutic hours in Limerick. They are helping fellow Clare people down the line.”
Mr McEvoy said the support shown by Clare people to helping Pieta House provide support and coun seling to services to vulnerable people.
“The vision for Pieta is that we are looking to have a Pieta House within 100km of every person in the country. We opened four new centres last year: Roscrea, Cork, Galway, Tuam and Castleisland,” he said.
“That opened a huge part of the country to Pieta. What we are after now is to cover the North West, Donegal. We’re actually calling to people up there. I’m doing a lot of work up there. We’re also talking actively in Waterford where those areas are devoid of any help that we can offer. We’re planning to have those centres up and running. They are fantastic goals and achievable because of the community following we have.”
Mr McEvoy was speaking as new figures show a 44 per cent rise in the number of Clare people that sought help from the Pieta House centre in Limerick during the first six months of 2014, compared to the same period last year. He said greater awareness of suicide and the issues around is enabling more and more people to come forward to seek help for their problems.
“That can be down to people’s confidence and confidentiality. There can be a sense of pride as well; sometimes they wish to remain anonymous in the area where they come. We’re obviously trying to lift the stigma of suicide. Hopefully in time to come people will attend from the localities along with the surrounding areas,” he said.
Pieta House provides a professional, one-to-one therapeutic service for those who are experiencing suicidal ideation or engaging in self-harm.