After months of planning Youghal Ladies Football hosted the much anticipated “YourMental Health is Your Wealth” information which was open to all parents, players, clubs and organisations from East Cork and West Waterford on Thursday 12th April at their home in Club Aras. With over 100 in attendance the evening was deemed a great success. The Ladies Gaelic Football Association with a current deep interest in Mental Health for all of it’s members also sent down a representative from Croke Park with a view to using the format of the evening as a standard template to be rolled out across the country. It was a landmark evening for such a young club being the first club nationally to adopt the theme and host it within their club. Michael Twomey who produced the local documentary “Town out Of Time” chaired the evening and in his opening comments he made a lot of reference to the documentary and the term Resilience. Amy O’Shea, the 2011 Cork Ladies Football captain opened the evening with some honest and powerful comments on her own experience as a young player and how she was a late developer into the game. Amy who has had her own battles with injury over the years spoke about how that affected her own mental health constantly thinking she had kicked her last football, but through support and positive thinking she overcame these obstacles to return to the game she loves. She also gave some very insightful advice to many underage coaches present on how to manage all players within their panels and always positively encourage and support all players regardless of their ability.

Ted Tierney CEO of “Mental Health Ireland” delivered the main presentation of the evening “The Strength of Community in Challenging Times – Building Resilience Together”. Ted gave an overview of the night and how Youghal Ladies Football Club have pulled out all the stops in making this evening happen. It is hoped that the Youghal Evening can be used across all clubs in the country in conjunction with LGFA.

The second half of the evening gave an insight into current trends across both Ireland and Europe on both alcohol and drug usage within the different age groups and also covered what local drug and alcohol services (Youghal Community Drugs Initiative) are available within the community.

To compliment this Diarmuid McGowan of the ASAP within the GAA discussed the Alcohol Substance Abuse Policy which all units (GAA, Ladies Football, Camogie & Eochaill Óg) of the Youghal GAA club developed over the few months. The Policy which had 3 drafts was most recently signed of by the Senior Executive last month. The main points of the policy are:

1.      U18 Medal ceremonies shall not be held in pubs

2.      Cigarettes shall not be sold in the clubhouse.

3.      Alcohol advertisements shall be phased out on club jerseys.

4.      The cup shall not be filled with alcohol during celebrations.

5.      Coaches and Club Officials shall  act in  responsible manner around alcohol while representing their club at matches

6.      Club members, officials, coaches and volunteers shall not present themselves at club activities while under the influence of any drug.

7.      Under 18’s shall not be brought to pubs on the way to or from matches, outings or training sessions.

 All persons associated with our club can help prevent drug-related harm from occurring during club activities.

The above policy and ASAP officer Peter Quealy were formally launched by Chairman of Youghal GAA Ger Motherway who also complimented chief organiser of the night Gordon Kinsley, secretary of the Ladies Football Club who over the past 5 months drove this excellent initative across all units of Youghal GAA. The evening finished with Chair of Youghal Ladies Football Club, Catriona Bulman-Hill thanking all presenters and all attendees for turning up.

For further details or advice on hosting such an evening please contactyoughalladies.sec@gmail.com.