This Saturday, 10th September, to coincide with ‘World Suicide Prevention Day’, Helplink Support Services (Helplink.ie) is joining forces with the Department of Foreign Affairs and the GAA to launch Cabhrú, a new type of support service for the Irish abroad. Cabhrú (meaning ‘help’ or ‘support’ in Irish) is a free online counselling service which will be available 7 days a week. Initially, the service will be available for Irish citizens in Australia during their evening times and each client can avail of up to six free appointments.
The Cabhrú team is working with local Irish support services in Australia, as well as the
Department of Foreign Affairs Irish Abroad Unit, the GAA and the Crosscare Migrant Project, to promote the service and encourage clients to avail of these free counselling appointments.
The idea for providing counselling to Irish citizens abroad originally came from Helplink’s counsellors and members of its board. Some of our clients who had been availing of counselling while in Ireland were able to continue their regular appointments when they went abroad for work, because of Helplink’s online counselling service. When we, as an organisation, analysed current and previous research in the area of mental health and emigrants we found that they are very unlikely to make use of counselling services in their adopted country of residence. Many emigrants found it hard to find affordable and good quality mental health services. Research also illustrated that some of those who did attempt to engage in mental health services abroad reported many barriers, including encounters with culturally unaware counsellors, which made the counselling process more difficult.
Research has shown that many people who emigrate discover that the experience is more arduous than they had anticipated. For most, emigration will involve leaving a network of family and close friends behind. As a result many emigrants develop feelings of loneliness and isolation. These feeling are often manifested in the development of mental health problems and issues surrounding substance abuse. As Kennedy, Lyes and Russell noted, in their 2014 paper ‘Supporting the Next Generation of the Irish Diaspora “Perhaps more than physical health concerns, mental health issues are becoming more pressing with the Irish community in Australia”, “As the burden of migration – loneliness, isolation, lack of networked support – can be a significant factor among migrants, it is crucial that these issues be recognised overseas…and recognised as …the nexus of the migrant relationship with the host country and with home”. Links to this research can be found at helplink.ie.
This year we also aim to provide a second service – an emotional support helpline for our Diaspora. We also have plans to expand the Cabhrú service to other countries such as Canada, the U.S.A. and the U.A.E in the future, and are currently seeking corporate social responsibility funding opportunities from Irish Companies at home and abroad to support this potential expansion.
For Irish emigrants outside of Australia, until we get the funding we need to expand the service, you could choose to use our low cost online counselling from our main counselling service, where our qualified, insured and Garda vetted Irish counsellors are available 7 days a week. Please contact helplinksupport@helplink.ie to arrange your appointment and/or go to Helplink.ie.
Social Media:
Twitter – @helplinksupport
Facebook – facebook.com/HelplinkSupportServices
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