This article is from page 4 of the 2011-07-12 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
A RELIGIOUS group will spend a week going door-to-door in north Clare this month to raise awareness of a special event being organised to tackle depression in the county, and to inform local people about the Ennis Evangelical Church and spread the teachings of the Gospel.
From July 25 to 29, four volunteers hope to visit as many homes as possible in a five- to 10-mile radius of Lisdoonvarna to highlight a free ‘Coping with Depression’ event.
The event is being coordinated locally by Lisdoonvarna man Phil Pain, who is a member of the Ennis Evangelical Church and whose son suffered from depression.
The Ennis Evangelical Church has been in operation in Clare for more than 34 years and teaches an orthodox Christian faith with an emphasis on the teachings in the Bible.
“The four people will base themselves in Lisdoonvarna and cover as much of the area as they can. They will knock on doors and ask if they can share the word of the gospel with the people inside or if no-one is there they will leave some material about the church and about the depression event,” Phil Pain told The Clare People yesterday.
“Depression is a real issue now in Ireland, especially in rural Ireland. When things aren’t going so well, when the economy is suffering, people feel trapped and lose homes. Suicide is unfortunately a frequent recourse for people in this position.”
Dr Steve Critchlow will be the main speaker at the free ‘Coping with Depression’ event which takes place at the Pavillion Theatre in Lisdoonvarna on Friday, July 29 from 7.45pm. The evening is aimed both at people who are suffering from depression and also at their families and loved ones.
Mr Pain said, “When I heard that my son might have been suffering from depression, I was totally taken by surprise. We were alerted to it when he started acting irrationally – he had quite a good job but he stopped going to work.
“When it came out that he was suffering from depression, I had no idea what I could do. I had never experienced anything like it myself so I could not empathise.”
“My son knew that something was going wrong but he couldn’t talk to us about it. He had felt ashamed to talk to us. That must have been awful, feeling like he could not turn to anyone. I felt totally useless when I heard. I was his dad, I had spent my life helping him but for this I felt that there was nothing that I could do.
“I found that one of the key things was just to be there and to listen just to be there for when they want to open up.”