Belfast man who lost friend to suicide calls for updated prevention strategy
A Belfast man whose friend took his own life has called for an updated suicide prevention strategy for Northern Ireland.
Last updated 28th Nov 2017
Joseph Donnelly's friend Thomas died by suicide in 2009.
In his memory, football-mad Joe set up charity TAMHI (Tackling Awareness of Mental Health Issues) to promote mental health awareness among Belfast clubs, youth and community groups.
He now manages the organisation and has called for an updated suicide prevention strategy for Northern Ireland.
"We've no Stormont at the minute and Protect Life was sitting on the health minister's desk but there was nobody there to sign it off.
"We need to get a government in place, we need to get Protect Life signed off and we need to get resources in to bring it to life but it needs to come now.
"We can't be sitting waiting anymore."
32-year-old Joe said the charity has helped many young men struggling with mental health issues.
"The biggest positive from sport is the ability to connect.
"If I work with a club who know the kids, the young people, the players that they serve...if it's coming from a coach and a leader that you look up to and respect, it resonates and connects.
"The work that we've done has got people to reach out."
His experience within football meant Joe was well placed to reach out to footballers and young men and establish TAMHI as a way to use sport to promote positive mental health.
"Clubs were coming to me saying Joe we want to do something around mental health but at that stage there was very little guidance and support.
"I decided to be the one to step up and support them.
"After Thomas took his life I became interested in mental health and I started to learn about it.
"At the time I was working with Sport NI as a Sports Development Assistant on small grants working with clubs.
"And basically I put two and two together, men don't talk, clubs have lots of men and it would be an ideal field to work in."
The charity has been working in conjunction with a number of organisations and recently got Belfast boxer Ryan Burnett (pictured below) on board as an ambassador.
Joe says they encounter a range of issues in the areas they work in, including bullying, drug addiction and misuse, gambling as well as mental health conditions.
He insists the charity has had a positive impact in the greater Belfast area.
"One case that I'm familiar with is a ten year-old almost taking their life because they were struggling with their sexuality.
"That's a real serious issue that happened in a community that I'm very close to."
He has called on policy makers to implement better support for services and charities dealing with people in crisis.
"The hoops that had to be jumped through to get that young person support was ridiculous.
"Ministers etc had to get involved and that shouldn't happen.
"There should be support from day one when you start Primary school.
"But unfortunately there's not."
Joe has called for better intervention and promotion of mental health awareness from a young age across the province.
"I think they (charities) all need detached outreach workers to actually go out and do the proactive, preventative stuff.
"And to be forever present and to humanise the organisations to normalise the fact that this is an outreach worker from suicide awareness in west Belfast working with all the schools.
"Everything needs to be an ongoing developmental programme which doesn't end."
The charities toolkits which are distributed to schools and community groups were shown to Prince William on a recent trip to Northern Ireland.
More information on TAMHI and the services they provide can be found here