A community in South Tipp is calling for more amenities and opportunities for their young people to tackle mental illness.
Over the weekend Teen Cave Youth club in Cahir, along with other local groups, organised a Dawn Walk to raise money for a wellness and mental health event later this year.
Many of the people present highlighted the large gap in the services and activities for those aged between 13 and 18 in Cahir.
These people were hopeful that events like Saturday were a start but still wanted to see more in the locality.
“There are no emergency services in Tipperary, I don’t know if there are in the country, but there certainly aren’t in Tipperary if you have an emergency with a child…
There is nothing really here there is playground here for younger children but obviously we can’t go into that because it is for 12 down so there is nothing for us just walk around the town and do nothing really.
If they want to go swimming or to the cinema or anything like that we have to go to Clonmel or Tipperary which is difficult for a lot of people because they don’t have transport.”
As dozens walked the route to Swiss Cottage – these people told Tipp FM that the lack of services in the South of the County was unacceptable and they’re glad to take it into their own hands.
“I think mental health it really needs to be addressed more and really needs to be looked at.
There are an awful lot of organisations and people get confused about the different groups that are out there but as far as I am concerned the official groups are the first port of call is your Doctor the second port of call is the HSE suicide awareness officer and the mental health awareness officer, and that is the channel you go to but the Doctor is the first port of call not social media or Facebook.
There is not enough, we need more for the younger crowd but what the lads are doing this morning to get them involved is brilliant but we need more.”
