A Shannon man is playing a leading role in the establishing of an out of hours suicide crisis café.
Gary Fitzgibbon is one of the Directors of The Haven Hub which opens on November 29th.. It will be based out of the social services building on Henry St in Limerick City. Numerous mental health charities and suicide patrols have come together to form the café.
Initially it will be open on Friday and Saturday nights from 8pm until 3:30am, the times will be reviewed in early 2020. “The idea behind it was quite simple after about 8pm, there is literally no place for people who might be in crisis/distress to go other than A&E and all of us who have presented at A&E while in suicidal distress are in agreement that it is not a suitable environment for someone who may find themselves in that situation,” Fitzgibbon explained to The Clare Echo.
“Research has also shown that around 10pm is peak time for callouts to the river. Our aim is to provide a warm, safe and compassionate environment for people in crisis. All of our volunteers will be ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training) trained and we will also provide information on all the fantastic voluntary and community mental health services that are available throughout Limerick and the Mid West”.
Personnel interested in volunteering can contact the organising group by emailing limerickhavenhub@gmail or contacting their Facebook and Instagram pages.
Suicide helplines can be reached by contacting Samaritans on 116 123 or Pieta House on 1800 247 247.
