Galwegians seek online mental health support

More than 1,000 people from Galway logged onto the online mental health community Turn2me last year to access support.

The Irish-operated site, which offers support and professional counselling to those suffering from illnesses such as depression, anxiety and stress, this week announced a significant increase in membership of the website over the past six months.

Since June 2011, membership of the website has increased by 51 per cent. The fourth highest number of visits to the site in 2011 were made from Galway, with more than 1,000 people visiting the website over the course of the year.

The site now has 3,000 unique visits per month. 43 per cent of users are not receiving any other form of support other than Turn2me and almost one third of the members visit Turn2me at least once a day.

Forty-eight per cent of users have not sought a professional diagnosis for their conditions, while 57 per cent of users agree that Turn2me is supporting them and a further 79 per cent feel that reading the stories and experiences of other users are ‘very helpful or helpful’.

The Turn2me website is staffed by 30 moderators who are made up of a mix of people with professional psychology training and others who bring the benefit of their life experience.  

All moderators undergo an interview, screening, garda vetting, detailed training and supervision. Visitors to the website can access support forums, group support, one to one counselling and a wide range of information in the website information centre.

The support forums are open from 12noon to 12midnight, seven days per week and are fully monitored by the team of 30 moderators.

Two of these key services provided by Turn2me – Group Support and 1-to-1 Counselling – are also experiencing huge increases in demand.

Group support is offered three times per week. This service provides 90 minutes of professionally facilitated group support, focussing on depression and anxiety, and over 500 people have already registered for this service in the four months since it has been introduced.

Online counselling is also offered to people in all parts of Ireland, and this service is now attracting almost 100 enquiries per week. This one-to-one service can help people who have little or no access to services, or who are unable to leave their house for a variety of reasons.

Turn2me was founded in 2009 by brothers Oisín and Diarmuid Scollard and is dedicated to the memory of their brother Cormac, who died in tragic circumstances in 2003.