Depression Clinic

‘Beat the Blues’ is a depression awareness programme designed for senior classes in secondary schools. It has proven a highly effective way to increase awareness and understanding of depression and to help young people become more open about emotional difficulties.

The programme started in 1994, prompted by the fact that Aware was receiving many requests to speak in schools in the Dublin area. It is now a major programme, presented to second level schools nationwide. More than 200,000 students throughout Ireland have been involved in this programme.

When an Aware Education Officer visits a school, he/she will usually speak to three groups of pupils over the course of the day, each for a double class period, ensuring the maximum number of students can benefit.

The talk itself covers the following:

Who and what is Aware?
An overview of statistics on depression in Ireland.
The ‘Monday Morning Blues’. The fact ‘the blues’ can occur any day of the week and that depression can be an extension of these feelings.
The issue of stigma, which has long been attached to all forms of mental illness.
Suicide figures - particularly the worrying incidences amongst young men.
What signs and symptoms to expect.
A video of young people speaking about their depression is shown.

Questions are then invited for about 10-15 minutes.
Typical questions would be:

How do family members cope with the problem?
What can you do when your best friend is more than just ‘fed-up’?
Do people ever think of taking ‘hard-drugs’ as an alternative to medication?
Are anti-depressant drugs addictive?

All students are given a specially designed bookmark featuring the symptoms of depression and information on Aware. This way, they can keep the information within handy reach for future reference. It is stressed to them that even if depression has not affected their lives yet, it may well do so at some point in the future.

Aware believes it vital to educate young people about depression and are pleased to be in a position to offer this service to the community.

For further information contact: John Wills on (01) 661 7211.

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For more information and advice, contact the Aware Helpline at 1890 303 302

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