A Clare native Psychology Professor and a family resource centre from this county have joined forces to launch a new mental health research study.
The study hopes to identify the overlaps between parenting and mental health struggles.
It comes as today marks World Mental Health Day.
Building Connections is a new study launched by Clarecare in conjunction with the Department of Psychology in Mary Immaculate College, Tusla and The HSE which examines the experience of parenting while living with mental health challenge.
The study is inspired by previous research indicating that 23% of families are dealing with parental mental health issues.
It also aims to find out which services parents avail of, what additional services would be of benefit and what parents feel are the barriers to accessing mental health or parenting services.
Joanne Perill, from Clarecare Family Support Service explains these factors are how the genesis of the study came about.
The research study will initally run for the next month and will consist of a 10 minute survey for parents to fill out.
Based on the rollout of the first phase and the participation rates in the survey, it’s hoped that the research time can be extended at a later date.
Clare native and Psychology Professor at Mary Immaculate College, Dr. Niamh Stack, is hopeful they’ll get the first indications of findings early in the new year.
Meanwhile, as part of World Mental Health Health Day the local branch of the Samaritans is highlighting their ‘Walkies For Welbeing’ campaign.
The campaign is targetted at dog walkers but is open to everyone and hopes to raise awareness of the work the organisation does.
Nationally the Samaritans take an average of 3,000 calls a month, totalling 30,000 calls every year.
Jennifer Vickers from the Ennis and Clare branch of Samaritans says the campaign also serves as a reminder of the benefit that regular exercise has for people’s mental health.
