Minding your Mood

Cork Healthy Cities initiative provides a wide range of support and information to grow awareness and has developed a number of tools to support health and wellbeing.  One initiative, "Psyched", developed as a programme in partnership with UCC, employers, the HSE and Cork City Council, has been particularly successful.

Click through to access the "Psyched" website. 

You can find some of their downloadable leaflets here:

• Effective Use of Mindfulness
• Managing My Sleep
• Coping with Distress
• Managing my Emotions
• Finding Calm
• The 3 Bs for Calm
• Be Kind
• COVID-19 Guidance for Volunteers

Cork City is a member of the WHO Healthy Cities global movement which aims to put health high on the social, economic and political agenda of city governments.

Coiscéim, in addition to its usual counselling service, is offering a coordinated helpline for anyone who is experiencing anxiety, has underlying health issues and in self-isolation and for families whose loved ones are hospitalised or who have had a family member die from COVID-19.  This service has been shared widely by the Community Response teams.

 SHEP/Coiscéim Cairde counselling is also providing a helpline to people living in Direct Provision Centres in Cork City and surrounding environs.

Link: https://www.socialandhealth.com/

Cork Kerry Community Healthcare have produced a series of videos on their YouTube channel about minding your mental health in response to the COVID-19 crisis.  You can watch them here by clicking on the links.

Cork Kerry Community Healthcare YouTube Channel 

 There are three cycles of videos:

5 ways over 5 days

1. Understanding our emotions Why we have emotions and how we manage them even if we do not like them.
2. Understanding our states of mind How we balance emotion and reason and find a wiser mind. 
3. Daily Mindfulness How to be in the moment; the “what” and “how” of everyday practice.
4. Relationship Mindfulness How to be mindful of others and protect your relationships.
5. Coping with Distress Some crisis survival tips when things are not how you want them to be.

5 more ways over 5 days.

1. Working with young children – featuring Ella Lovett, Principal Psychologist, Specialist in Child and Adolescent Health
2. Working with Teenagers – featuring Anthony Kiernan, Senior Psychologist, Child and Adolescent Health 
3. Working with Intellectual Disabilities – featuring Paul Duggan, Senior Psychologist, Mental Health and Intellectual Disability.
4. Working with Older People – featuring Judy Wall, Senior Psychologist, Mental Health Services for Older People
5. Advancing our Mindfulness Skills Practice  – featuring Coleen Cormack, Senior Psychologist, Adult Mental Health Services.

Mindfulness Practices

1. Mindful Practice: Handwashing
2. Mindful Practice: Forest Walk
3. Mindful Practice: Breath
4. Mindful Practice: Body
5. Mindful Practice: Butterfly Hug

Plus, for health care workers, there is a video, Calmwith tips on how to manage emotional responses to unprecedented circumstances. 

Stress Control is an evidenced based programme that teaches you practical skills to deal with stress. 

The programme covers topics including: 

• how stress affects our bodies and our thoughts,
• skills to overcome panicky feelings,
• and tips to getting a good night’s sleep. 

At this very challenging time Stress Control is a proven and effective way to improve mental wellbeing for staff and the public. You may wish to share the information about this programme with your family and friends to encourage their participation. 

'Free Stress Control' programme, which helps participants deal with their stress and learn skills to support their mental wellbeing, is made up of six online sessions of an hour and half each. To join simply go to https://stresscontrol.ie to register and you will be updated when the next module will be broadcast. 

This is the second roll out of these online classes following great feedback and engagement from the public and staff. The initial programme had an average audience of circa 6,500 viewers tuning into each session from across the UK and Ireland. Encouragingly 62% of viewers were Irish, represented across all ages from 18 to 65 years old. The majority of participants were in the 35 – 64 year old age group. Women represented 75% of participants. Overall, these metrics demonstrated the interest and engagement with the programme among the Irish public.

Healthy Ireland's YouTube channel has some fantastic video resources relating to mental as well as physical health.  Here are some of their latest uploads:

1. Staying Healthy and Keeping Well video: Patrick Reilly, Traveller Mental Health Worker, Pavee Point 

2. Your Wellbeing (Romanian language) video: Rares-Mihai Nicula, Roma Project Officer, Dublin City Community Co-op