Mental health project under threat over funding loss

A UNIQUE mental health initiative designed to provide independent supported living for people with mental health issues is under threat due to loss of funding.

Slí Eile, which provides care and support for people who are trying to get their lives back on track during or following an illness, is struggling to survive on foot of the Health Service Executive’s (HSE) decision to withdraw €150,000 in funding.

Joan Hamilton set up the project in Charleville, Co Cork to help her own daughter. Slí Eile focuses on human contact, reintegration and confidence building. There are five tenants who pay a small amount of rent each week for bed and board. However, the withdrawal of €150,000 in funding from North Cork HSE, has placed the future of the initiative in doubt. Although it still receives money on a month by month basis, without the security of annual funding it is vulnerable. A HSE spokesperson said it is undertaking a review of the service which will be completed “shortly”.

One tenant, Ciara O’Connor says she spent the last year and a half in bed. An Obsessive Compulsive Disorder sufferer who was first diagnosed with an illness at 18, now, at 41, she has been through the system.

She found her way to Slí Eile which supports recovery and helps people to relearn life skills.

Ciara has been in the house for four weeks and the change in her is remarkable.

“I have been in and out of hospital since I was 18 and I have been at home in bed for a year-and-a-half. The stress and worry it has caused my parents is unreal.

“I have been here four weeks, and it is great just to have a purpose again. We get up early every morning, bake scones and bread and deliver them into town as part of the home-baking venture. We take turns in cooking and cleaning and the day flies. I feel very positive and was home at the weekend for a family event and integrated with everyone.

“There is always someone here to help you and there are four other girls here and we get great support from one another. I will stay here until I feel confident to live independently again.”

Her father John said he would like “to see this project augmented around the country; it has to be the way forward. It is the ideal model of care”.

Picture: Ciara O’Connor, Josephine O’Driscoll and Catherine O’Shea at the Information day at Slí Eile Support Services, Charleville, Co Cork. Picture: Denis Scannell