Cllr John McGahon (right) with President of Young Fine Gael Dale McDermott (left), at the launch of Young Fine Gael’s mental health policies
In welcoming the launch this week by Young Fine Gael of two policy documents on mental health, Fine Gael Councillor for Dundalk-Carlingford, John McGahon, has commended the organisation for bringing this issue to the fore.
In a statement, the Seatown man said: “Young Fine Gael’s new policies on mental health are relevant to everyone and will hopefully bring more awareness to the promotion of positive mental health.
“YFG’s new policies on mental health comprise a document for Government with 12 key recommendations on how we can improve mental health in Ireland, and an internal document containing a number of commitments to make the YFG organisation more mental health friendly.
“The statistics on suicide and self-harm sadly speak for themselves and the issue of positive mental health, while always relevant, is more important than ever. We must try and highlight this at every opportunity.
“YFG’s 12 key recommendations on mental health are being presented to Government to try to initiate legislative improvements in the area. They include; calling on the Press Council to develop guidelines for the media on the reporting of mental health and suicide, a counselling service available free of charge to students in schools, a specific compulsory curriculum on mental health to form part of the SPHE course at junior and senior levels, and dedicated curriculums on the issue of cyberbullying.
“If put into practise, YFG’s recommendations would go a long way towards normalising the conversation around mental health in Ireland.”
