Head-Ed

As featured on Newstalk. It’s estimated that 1 in 6 people will experience depression throughout their lifetime. Mental health difficulties can exist for years without being treated, as people are not trained to recognise the warning signs of these difficulties within themselves and within others. For example psychosis goes untreated for an average of 1-2 years. The longer these illnesses go unrecognised and untreated the more a person’s life deteriorates and the higher the chance of a negative outcome like suicide. It is therefore critical that these illnesses are recognised early. The World Health Organisation suggests that in mental health "Early intervention is fundamental in preventing progress towards a full-blown disease, in controlling symptoms and improving outcomes". But even if a person or a person’s family recognise that something is wrong it isn’t clear what the path forward to treatment is. Typically people hear amorphous advice like ‘open up and talk’ or might be aware that there are anti-depressants one can take but there is no obvious primary care point that people or even healthcare professionals know where to go to for mental health care. Head-Ed aims to solve both of these problems by educating secondary schools students how to recognise the warning signs of mental illness in themselves and others, what to do once those signs present themselves, and educating doctors how to be the primary point for someone with a mental health difficulty. The desired effect is to reduce the diagnosis times of mental illness and significanlty reduce the suicide rate among students who have been educated. Head-Ed has received input from some of the top psychiatrists, psychologists, and mental health professionals in Ireland. It has also received approval from Minister of State for Mental Health Mary Butler and support from Minister for Education Norma Foley.