Emer Corcoran from Moate Community School in County Westmeath discusses her experience of our TY mental health placement.
Visiting St. Patrick's University Hospital (SPUH)
On first day of the programme, the other students and I were on site in St Patrick’s University Hospital (SPUH) for a tour of the hospital and to meet Sinead and Rebecca from Walk in My Shoes (WIMS). I enjoyed the first day meeting other students from around the country, I think that meeting your peers in person makes the online sessions a lot easier - everyone knows each other a bit better having met in person.
I really enjoyed the tour of SPUH, especially seeing all the different rooms that service users can access. I thought the cookery room, arts and crafts room and music room were important rooms in the hospital - expressing your interests through skill is a nice thing to do, especially when you’re going through a mental health difficulty, and could make you feel more at home when you are in a hospital.
It's important for us to remember that mental health hospitals aren’t the like the ones you see on television. Thankfully, we’re not stuck in the 18th century when it comes to mental health care.
If anything, mental health hospitals like SPUH are probably nicer than most hospitals that I’ve been in. The halls are bright and spacious, the wards are different colours, and the atmosphere is friendly. I wouldn’t be ashamed to go through a hospital like SPUH, I would be glad to go through such a supportive environment.
The programme
The next four days we were all online for different talks and group work. My favourite activities from the programme were the mock multi-disciplinary team (MDT) meeting, the lived experience talk with Charlotte who was a past service user of St Patrick’s Mental Health Services (SPMHS), and the careers discussion with a pharmacist from the hospital.
Charlotte was one of my personal favourite talks given during the programme because she talked about her experience going through a mental health difficulty, and how it was such a daunting time for her. She talked us through her experience of being a service user - from the taxi ride to the hospital to her being discharged after her inpatient stay - this gave us a good idea of what it's like to go through a mental health service.
I learned a lot about mental health from the programme, for example, most people who are service users are in control of their treatment. If they want therapy and medication, it’s up to them, your MDT helps you through that. The talks with Paul Gilligan who is a clinical psychologist and Chief Executive officer of SPMHS, and the pharmacy career talk have given us an idea if we would consider working in mental health care as a career.
Mental health ambassador in school
Since the programme I have gone back to my school as a mental health ambassador and ran an education programme with our 1st year student through their Social, Personal and Health Education classes around what to do if they know someone who is going through a mental health difficulty.. We have also had different activities in the school such as a poster competition and Mental Health Awareness Week activities that included as Denim Day for Dementia with The Alzheimer's Society of Ireland.
Mental health awareness
I think that our generation aren’t scared to speak up about mental health. I think we treat it as an everyday sort of topic to talk about. And it’s programmes like WIMS that help young people be aware of mental health issues.
Anyone can go through a mental health difficulty, whether it be a relative, a friend or a stranger on the street. And the probability is that we’ll all go through some form of a mental health problem in our lifetime.
“ Remember, to have a healthy body, you need a healthy mind. So don’t be ashamed to speak up and ask for help."
A worthwhile programme
Thanks to WIMS, I now know how to support someone that’s experiencing a mental health difficulty, and I know how to support myself. To any current students in second or third year, I would recommend doing the WIMS programme because it's a rewarding way to spend a week of your TY, you can take a lot from it, and you can meet new people.
