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Buncrana conference explores young
people's struggles
23.06.11
THE annual suicide rate
in Ireland has increased by nearly a quarter in
three years with young people increasingly
displaying a range of complex mental health needs, a
conference in Buncrana has heard.
Day two of the Road Ahead seminar hosted by the
University of Ulster (UU) focused on the mental
health and wellbeing of children and young adults.
One of the organisers, UU lecturer, Breda Friel,
said the aim on the second day was to explore how
resiliency and coping skills among young people
could be improved.
The seminar also heard from speakers including Dr
Tony Bates, founding director of Headstrong, the
National Centre for Youth Mental Health in Ireland. |
Dr Bates told the
gathering, which included many young people, that
adolescence was "a very delicate time". He said many
young people are vulnerable to feeling they have no
direction in life and may "struggle to feel real".
He said they might look around and think all their
friends are sorted but they feel they have no
direction in life and "it all gets too much".
"Young people are trying to find a sense of who they
are, where they fit in and to build a life that fits
their intuition of who they are. To be who you are,
to find a life that's yours - that's a hugely
important central challenge for a young person," |
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Dr Tony Bates. |
said Dr Bates.
"The thing that's most important is feeling real.
Winnicott was a great child psychoanalyst and he
said that 'young people are searching for a form of
identity that does not let them down in their
struggle to feel real, the struggle to establish a
personal identity, not to fit into an assigned
role'," said Dr Bates, a clinical psychologist.
"No matter how wonderful your family, no matter how
wonderful the role models are, you know in your gut
that you've still got to find your own way and each
person is faced with that.
"But sometimes you feel you are not finding your own
way, you feel you are falling behind, that everybody
else is stepping up the developmental ladder except
you.
"Sometimes you just feel that some people have a
sense of direction, that they know where they're
going - that they are going to finish school, or go
to the IT or go to Dublin or they have a plan. They
are going to go into a business, a craft or a trade,
but you feel you have nothing - that you have no
direction, and that's hard.
"Sometimes it all gets too much, everything all
crowds in on top of you and you just feel all of the
pressures that you're trying to cope with...and that
fire begins to burn too brightly and intensely
inside." Dr Bates illustrated the importance of
friendship and integrity by showing clips from a
number of films including 'Good Will Hunting', where
the character played by Ben Affleck poignantly
encourages the character played by Matt Damon to
pursue his prodigious mathematical talent, even
though it means leaving him behind.
Dr Bates' organisation, Headstrong, is responsible
for setting up the acclaimed Jigsaw initiative.
Jigsaw works in communities by engaging young
people, service providers and other groups to
develop effective responses to the mental health
needs of young people aged 12-25.
The two-day 'Road Ahead: Safe Futures and Positive
Perspectives’ at the Inishowen Gateway Hotel was
organised in collaboration with a number of other
partners, including Buncrana Town Council, Inishowen
Development Partnership, Donegal Youth Service,
Health Promotion: HSE, Donegal Road Safety Working
Group, National Roads Authority and Buncrana
Community Combating Suicide.
The well-attended conference brought together
experienced practitioners from across different
disciplines from the Republic of Ireland, Northern
Ireland and Australia who shared knowledge, best
practice and programmes about road safety and mental
health. |
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