The Union of Students in Ireland, alongside Minister Jim Daly, Minister with special responsibility for mental health and the HSE have officially launched the National Student Mental Health Campaign; ReCharge, and the +Connections App as of 12pm today, Monday 12th November, in University College Cork.
This new and exciting campaign focuses on reaching out to students in a conscious effort to tackle, head on the 3 pillars of student life that most commonly affect student mental health:
- Sleep Hygiene
- Exam Stress
- Alcohol Consumption
Additionally, today marked the first day of the ReCharge Roadshow that is being lead by USI Vice President for Welfare, Damien McClean in 5 college campuses around Ireland; UCC, NCI, LyIT and DkIT. Speaking on this at today’s launch, the Vice President said:
“Students’ Unions have made this an easier transition for students by encouraging and empowering them to use these supports. Often students recognise that there are supports available to them, however they feel like their problems are not serious enough to warrant using them or they feel guilty about adding to waiting lines in cases that they deem more important than their own. That is why we have created the ReCharge campaign, the idea of the campaign is to relate our own energy levels to that of a full battery – you can ReCharge yourself when you’re feeling low, but you are also valued when you are not at 100%.”
On behalf of the state, Minister Jim Daly, Minister with special responsibility for mental health thanked the Union of Students in Ireland for the work being done on mental health at third level, speaking on this the Minister stated:
“Mental health is everybody’s concern, it is all of our responsibility to collectively embrace the challenge. We need to have some serious conversations about where we are going in the area of mental health, societally.
USI have shown great leadership today in launching this app [+Connections] and providing a tool for every student to direct and signpost them to the appropriate services available, I want to acknowledge the contribution of the ESB for funding this app.”
HSE representative, Sinead Glennon spoke on the ReCharge campaign today stating;
“The ReCharge campaign and ones like it are important, we have a role to play in an environment where it is normal to have a conversation about how we are feeling. The ReCharge campaign has a two-fold aim: one, to signpost the available supports and services, but secondly to focus on building resilience.”
Conact:
Aoife Duff
Public Relations & Communications Manager
Union of Students in Ireland
M: 086 1303 101
E: pr@usi.ie