The Jigsaw services in North Fingal and Dublin 15, along with their Youth Advisory Panels, collaborated with 20+ youth organisations/schools in a cross-Fingal community project. The aim of the project was to involve young people in a conversation around what happened to them in a year that none of us expected.
Many of the young people who attend Jigsaw services report that sleep is one of their main difficulties. In order to mark World Sleep Day 2021 we want to answer some of our most frequently asked questions concerning sleep.
Listen to Deirdre, Jigsaw clinician, walk you through the most frequently asked questions about sleep.
Body image is the way we feel about how we look. Most of us experience dissatisfaction with how we see our body at different points in our life.
Very few people are 100% confident about their appearance at all times. However, if the way we feel about our body starts to impact what we do in a negative way, we need to address this.
Difficulty with body image affects people of any gender. In today’s society, there’s a focus on physical appearance and the ‘perfect body’ and social media can emphasise this.
Scrolling through Instagram and making comparisons between ourselves and what we see is very common. This can distort our sense of body image, creating unrealistic expectations of how we should look.
A young person who received a cancer diagnosis has developed a booklet to support teenagers who may be facing the same situation.
They were treated for Hodgkin’s lymphoma when they were 15 years old which was a lonely and worrying time for them. Inspired by what they felt was a lack of educational materials available for young adults living with cancer, and they have created this resource drawing from their own experience.
We talk about self-care a lot. But what does it mean?
We’ve had to learn to try and live alongside Covid in the last while. So let’s remind ourselves that these are unusual and challenging times.
As lockdown restrictions continue to be lifted, it’s important to incorporate self-care into our daily routine.
Linda, Jigsaw clinician runs through some ways we can look out for ourselves.
Jigsaw have partnered with BeLonG To Youth Services to launch a new online course: Supporting the Mental Health of LGBTI+ Young People.
This course is for adults who work or volunteer with young people. It consists of a self-directed online programme that takes under two hours, followed by a three hour live Zoom workshop.
**This course and waitlist are now full. We will make an announcement when we can open it up again. Thank you!**
Jigsaw in Galway is currently in the process of moving to a new home. During the move, our commitment to providing services and support to young people in Galway remains the same.
Because of you, 2019 saw Jigsaw grow the ways in which young people can access our youth mental health support. Find out more in our 2019 Annual Report.
Happythreads.ie, the healthcare clothing company, have made an amazing donation of €5,000 to Jigsaw, as their chosen charity for the month of June.
Emily, 18, a Jigsaw volunteer from Donegal gives us her story: As the daughter of an essential worker, I’ve come to recognise that quitting time is non-existent these days for some workers.
Dinner time is rarely a shared occasion. As I write this, she’s on phone call number two of the day, on her day off. This is the new normal for myself, and a lot of other young people living with an essential worker during this pandemic.
For many young adults in Ireland over the past few months, there has been additional stress added to the fact that they are living through a global pandemic. For some, almost overnight, they have gained a new responsibility, not only for themselves but for siblings and other family members too, because their parents have been occupied with helping to fight the ongoing crisis. For myself, as well as trying to keep on top of college work, I have been looking after my five younger siblings. This includes doing washing, tidying up the house and making sure they are all fed and watered, as well as checking in to make sure they are ok with their schoolwork. This has been stressful and frustrating at times, but overall very rewarding to know that the pressure is taken off my mammy somewhat when she gets home from work in the evenings.
I have found a few different ways of working in order to help myself and the others in my house as much as possible. My hope is that by sharing them, I can help other young people that find themselves in the same situation as myself. They include:
Even if it is just a basic list of things I need to do the next day, writing a list always helps me to stay motivated and keep going throughout the day to get as much done as I can.
