A West Belfast football club is leading the way when it comes to raising awareness of suicide and mental health issues.
St Oliver Plunkett FC has been woking with mental healthy charity TAMHI ahead of World Suicide Prevention Day on Saturday, September 10.
The club has been actively promoting suicide awareness to players over the age of 16, parents volunteers and coaches. Over 50 people associated with the club have also been taking part in the free 20-minute Zero Suicide Alliance online training.
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Plunkett is keen to encourage more people to the participate in the training which is being led by Irish Football Association Mental Health champion Barry Lowe.
Barry said: "As a club we have an obligation to raise awareness of Mental Health and encourage our players, coaches and parents to look out for themselves and others.
"Sadly we have lost people within the club family to suicide and West Belfast is one the most adversely affected by suicide in Northern Ireland.
"As a club we have decided to work with TAMHI and the IFA to put projects in place to raise Mental health awareness, to look out for signs of concern, signpost members and even encourage players to support their families to access the amazing services in West Belfast like West Wellbeing, Lenadoon Counselling Services and Suicide Awareness Support Group.
"We want to champion positive mental health also as we promote the Take 5 Steps for Wellbeing in everything we do."
St Oliver Plunkett are being supported by TAMHI through its National Lottery Community Fund programme, Change Makers.
TAMHI works with sports clubs and groups who use sport to raise awareness of mental health and resilience.
Its CEO Joe Donnelly said: "I want to commend the efforts of Barry and St Oliver Plunkett FC. It can be hard to get buy in for Mental health awareness as volunteers and people in general are busy.
"As a club they serve kids who according to the stats may have one in eight affected by a mental health problem and they serve adults who may have one in five affected by a mental health problem.
"Barry is driving a proactive approach to encourage members and parents to take a quick 20-minute course that will increase knowledge and may help someone save a life. This is club leadership and its to be applauded."
Anyone interested in the free Training can check it out at https://www.zerosuicidealliance.com/
If your club is interested in support from TAMHI contact support@tamhi.org
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