A suicide prevention charity in the Colin area has been providing vital counselling and mental health services to the local community and further afield for the best part of nearly a year.

Founded in 2021, West Wellbeing is set to celebrate its first birthday next month and has been working to reduce the rate of suicide and help to improve the mental health and wellbeing in the community.

The mission of the organisation is to provide a safe space for people to avail of counselling and befriending services as well as a range of bespoke training programmes for clubs and organisations.  

Speaking with the Andersonstown News on World Mental Health Day, Director Desy Jones and Cares Services Manager Karen Fegan spoke about the areas the services cover and how it is welcome to all communities and everyone from all walks of life. 

“We started with the Sports Forum for all clubs in West Belfast to come together. We had always planned to open this here to go along with that but because of the need and what was going on the in area we decided to go a different road with it and opened a suicide prevention charity,” said Desy. 

“We cater for all of Belfast and beyond. Our clients come from all over the place. We have clients from the Shankill and the Falls, throughout Belfast, East and West. We’re covering all areas, communities and all walks of life, our youngest is three and our oldest is 92.”

The wraparound service provides advocacy, support and outreach work. Desy described the outreach work as visiting someone who may have just lost someone to suicide and visiting them within their homes initially, if it’s possible and if that suits them.

“Then we start building up a relationship from there. The first couple of visits we’ll go to their home and then eventually encouraging them to come here,” he said.

Continued Karen: “I like to think we humanise therapy, the first initial point of contact is very informal, we don’t do tickbox sheets."

Speaking on the suicide prevention and befrienders aspect of the service Desy added: “We would have quite a number of clients who have attempted to take their own life and somebody has stopped them, so then we will see them on a regular basis every day, constant contact, until we get them to a certain place where we could put them into relevant therapy.

“That’s where the ripple effect comes in with suicide, if they don’t get the help right away that can be high risk. We just wrap around them right away.” 

“Our befrienders will step in when the individual is at the point where they can actually focus and offload," said Karen. "A befriender will take the individual on another journey before they consider counselling or any form of intense therapy."

The need on the services has been increasing with September seeing the organisation cover 530 hours booked sessions, excluding walk-in.

 “The past month, our rooms are back-to-back constantly. We’ve been doing a lot of intervention, we’ve had a lot of walk-ins. I think at the minute it’s at an all-time high and with the current economy at the minute it’s only going to get worse,” added Karen.

Desy says they don't have a referral system" because things get lost in a referral system".

"If somebody contacts us on somebody else’s behalf, we contact that person and we’ll get them in right away," he added.

The organisation is set to expand to meet the increasing needs of the service. At present, the centre is located within the Dairy Farm and has three counselling rooms and an art playroom. The organisation has four staff members as well as 40 volunteers some of whom are specialised and qualified therapists and addiction counsellors who are externally funded.

 “Our art therapy room runs six days a week, all day every day we’re opened until 8 o’ clock at night,” Karen said.

 “We’re not trying to be the biggest, we’re not trying to be the best. We are thinking on our feet every minute of every day, we’re trying to meet the demand coming through the door. We have clients coming from Carrickfergus, Bangor, Enniskillen. There are a few places that have contacted us to ask us if we could replicate it in their area, in Enniskillen, Derry, England, down South.”

Desy continued: “We have targeted the long-term mental health of children in terms of the art and play therapy. So, if they are grieving or whatever the case may be they are processing that now at that early age and they eventually start talking about it after their drawings – so it doesn’t manifest when they’re 16 or 17. We’re trying to break this cycle. Intergenerational trauma is massive.”

The organisation have launched two new programmes linking up with schools and youth clubs to attempt to break that cycle. 

The programmes ‘Well Girl’ and ‘Well Guy’ involve personal development workshops aimed at developing an understanding of personal worth, strength, resilience and courage as well as a range of other attributes.  

 “This is World Mental Health Day, all this here is all geared for people to turn their lives around and improve their mental health. We have a number of clients who have mental health disorders, they’re entitled to a quality of life too. Poor mental health shouldn’t be an obstacle to your quality of life. They go with befrienders, and they work through the difficulties in the here and now, the daily difficulties of living with their condition or their disorder. You see the differences in them, their mental health has improved dramatically,” said Desy.

Karen spoke of a client who was referred to the service earlier this year with schizophrenia and had no quality of life and had addiction problems and who “six months down the line he is thriving, he’s healthy".

"It’s the most rewarding when you do see the success stories coming through, it is the most rewarding job you can do.”

West Wellbeing is located within the Dairy Farm on the Stewartstown Road and do not have a referral process.