A three year Rural Community Health Worker project has been launched in Mallow.
The North Cork initiative has been in place since January this year, and is made up of three rural community health workers who are focused on helping people in the area improve their health, lifestyle and wellness through programmes.
Another key role for these workers is to inform people about suicide prevention, intervention and postvention procedures.
A dedicated support team oversees this work, including HSE workers and the Regional Suicide Resource Officer.
Speaking about the project, Resource Officer for Suicide Prevention, Helena Cogan said:
"Free training in suicide prevention has been available throughout Cork and Kerry for almost 20 years. The introduction of the Rural Community Health Worker project for the North Cork area will ensure that the increased and enhanced availability of information on supports to those at risk and those affected by suicide is promoted and supported to an even greater degree. The core aspect of the Rural Community Health Worker project will be to ensure that the suite of free training programmes related to suicide prevention/intervention are made widely available to the rural sector of North Cork."
Some of the programmes on offer include:
- START, a 90 minute online suicide alertness training.
- SafeTALK, a half day suicide alertness training.
- 2 day ASIST (Applied Suicide Alertness Skills Training) course.
- 1 day Understanding Self-harm Training across the North Cork area.
