Niamh Louise Foundation

“The aim of the Niamh Louise Foundation is to provide a safe environment where anyone can drop in to chat about worrying thoughts, thoughts of suicide and/ or self harm. The Niamh Louise Foundation will provide love, understanding and respect with a non judgemental listening ear”.

The Niamh Louise Foundation was founded in February 2006 following the death of a local 15 year old girl who died by suicide. Niamh Louise Mc Kee died in November 2005 and her sudden death sent shockwaves through her small rural community and the surrounding areas. In the aftermath of Niamh’s death it was soon realised that there was no support locally in the rural community for those who had been bereaved by suicide or even affected by suicide in other ways.

Seven years on, the Niamh Louise Foundation is tackling this rural isolation and provides prevention, intervention and post-vention services to anyone affected by mental illness, self harm, and/or suicide through a range of services such as mentoring, befriending and complementary therapies. The Foundation carries out all its work with no government funding, and relies solely on grant funding, community fundraisers and private donations.

Our method of approach connects the individual at risk to a programme of healing and recovery which is based on a one to one, step by step, individual process, listening to the needs of each individual client and tailors their care appropriately through art, writing, mentoring & befriending, and complementary therapy and educates the vulnerable within rural areas with thoughts of suicide/self harm, on warning signs, triggers, daily maintenance and prevention of relapse.

Our recently formed youth group meets on a weekly basis in a safe environment, facilitated by mentors and befrienders. This group is about awareness, empowerment, and education for youth in the local area who want to make a change and deal with issues surrounding mental illness, self harm, and suicide.

The youth feel ‘comforted’ and ‘reassured’ that others their age feel the same and feel this should be more widely promoted so that those suffering do not feel isolated in the pain that they are experiencing. They feel that lack of awareness leads to lack of understanding and they want to be listened to and heard so that their story can inspire and encourage others to seek help and recover. They describe how they want to be ‘given a voice’ and so this day is about giving them the knowledge and education on how to do this appropriately in order to campaign at a political level to highlight the prevalence and impact of suicide and to publicise the work that is being done by our charity.