Sunday, May 06, 2018

Woodbine Coffee Morning for youth suicide prevention

The Woodbine Books team.
A Coffee Morning in aid of Youth Suicide Prevention Ireland will be held in Woodbine Books on Tuesday, 8 May, writes Brian Byrne.

YPSI is a registered charity which organises a range of supports for schools in the area of mental health awareness and suicide prevention.

These include sending information packs every August to all 780 secondary schools and 130 third level colleges in the country.

The organisation arranges visits to schools by trained facilitators to discuss mental health issues directly with students — at no cost to the schools or students. There's also a volunteer Campus Representative programme for schools and colleges.

According to provisional figures for 2017, 63pc of YSPI's funds were spent directly on the Schools Programme, while another 17pc were used by the Crisis Information Service. The balance went to training, and counselling support, with 9pc of the total raised directed to administration costs.

YPSI operates a Freetext service for young people in crisis, who can text HELP to 50015 even if they have no phone credit.

The Coffee Morning will run from 10am-1pm and everybody is welcome. A 'Skydive Against Suicide' and 'Students Against Suicide' are key campaigns for 2018.