Donegal Mental Health Win at Irish Healthcare Centre Awards 2023

Community Healthcare Cavan, Donegal, Leitrim, Monaghan, Sligo

The Donegal Wellness Cafés were the winners of the Irish Healthcare Centre Awards 2023 Healthcare Initiative Patient Education/Lifestyle Project. 

The initiative started with service users who initially completed the EOLAS education and information programme for people with psychosis followed by the ‘Write to Recovery’ programme in 2019.

This process was the foundation for the development of the Wellness Cafes in Donegal. There are currently 15 cafes established in Donegal with the latest addition in the Atlantic Technological University, Letterkenny, where the students are verbalising the benefits of being involved.

The awards were held in the Royal Marine Hotel, Dun Laoghaire on Friday night 26^th May 2023. There were 166 initiatives shortlisted in 28 categories.

The Wellness Café initiative was developed in Donegal by people with lived experience of Mental Health illness and clinicians working in the service. This engagement was born because service users of mental health services needed not to be seen as patients, but individuals with knowledge ability, creativity, rights and ownership over their own recovery. The idea was to create a space in the local community for people with lived experience to meet up socially in a local café with staff from the services to discover themselves, create engagement, reduce isolation and develop quality in their recovery journey. Everyone goes to the Café for themselves and the feedback has been phenomenal.

The Wellness Café model has grown from one initially in 2019 to 15 across Donegal which is a reflection of the need and relevance of having one in your local community. This model supports people in their recovery journey and promotes Wellness. When organised, people with lived experience have so much to offer and gain from engagement with each other and with clinicians in their local communities. Winning this award is a fabulous achievement and will empower those who have given time and commitment to its development and encourage others in Mental Health to mobilise their communities and services to follow suit.

Dr John McCardle, HSE Area Director of Nursing in Donegal in congratulating the service said “This is a tremendous achievement for people with lived experience and staff from the Donegal Mental Health Service. The Wellness Cafes represent real empowerment in action. People have discovered themselves, found new ways of engagement, learned from others, developed friendships and confidence to try out new ways of being. There is no them and us only we. No stigma and people have found their sense of purpose and identity.”

The venues and times for the cafes in Donegal are;

• You can find Donegal Wellness Café on Facebook;  Donegal Wellness Café
• Everyone is welcome to attend a café.