“When there’s stuff going around and you’re head-wrecked and you’re afraid to talk to your parents and you don’t know if you can talk to your friends, it’s like going home . . .”
These are the words of one Galway teenager who feels he has begun to piece his life back together at Jigsaw in the city’s Mary Street.
Designed for and by young people, Jigsaw Galway is a drop-in centre for 15- to 25-year-olds which has been developed by Headstrong, the Health Service Executive (HSE) and Mental Health Ireland (MHI).
John Fitzmaurice, a teacher by training who is now working as the centre’s programme manager, says the response has exceeded all expectations. “We knew that there were lots of hidden needs out there, but it’s much more than we anticipated.”
Jigsaw Galway has nine staff, including a full-time nurse and a substance-abuse counsellor, and access to GPs. Currently, the centre is visiting schools and running workshops to raise awareness of its existence.
“We find that you could hear a pin drop when we talk to a group of kids in school,” Fitzmaurice says. “Then, a few days later, you might find one or two of those students dropping in to chat to us just to take a look. And then they might be back some days later and you know it is because they feel safe.”
About one-third of those who’ve visited so far have dropped in, and two-thirds have been referred by friends, family, GPs and teachers. As Dr Tony Bates, of Headstrong, said at the centre’s opening in January, “early intervention is a very common term, but it is a really powerful idea”.
One Leaving Cert student said that it had taken him some weeks to “look it up” after he heard about the centre. “I suppose when you’re worried and you’re nervous, you’re not trusting anyone. I don’t know why I took so long. It’s cool.”
Jigsaw Galway is modelled on “world’s best practice” and Headstrong hopes it will “redefine how we think about mental health for young people”. The telephone answering service at the centre outside working hours is to be complemented by a mobile-phone text-based service, which will issue an immediate response to those trying to contact it.
The service can be contacted by phone (091-549252) and e-mail (galway@jigsaw.com) and is open through the week and also on Saturdays to allow people from Galway county to drop in. Jigsaw Galway is at 18 Mary Street; www.jigsaw.ie.
Lorna Siggins, Western Correspondent