Written answers

Thursday, 12 February 2015

Department of Social Protection

Mental Health Awareness

Photo of Colm KeaveneyColm Keaveney (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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47. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will consider flying the Amber Flag from her Department buildings on a chosen day in order to raise awareness of the Amber Flag programme which works to raise awareness of mental health issues within second level schools, sports clubs and youth organisations; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6436/15]

Photo of Joan BurtonJoan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Department of Social Protection currently operates out of approximately 400 individual buildings across the country, however only two of these buildings, Headquarter Buildings in Dublin (Aras Mhic Dhiarmada) and Sligo (Pensions Service Office, Cranmore), have flagpoles. To date, these flagpoles have only been used for the flying of the National Flag at appropriate times as instructed by the Department of the Taoiseach’s Office.

Through the provision of courses such as SafeTalk (delivered to 441 staff in 2013), ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training), mental health awareness and stress awareness to staff, the Department aims to promote positive mental health and wellbeing and empower staff to provide support to customers in distress. In addition, the Department fully supports suicide awareness and provides training for staff and guidance officers in dealing with cases of actual and threatened suicide. The flying of the Amber Flag on our two buildings identified above is unlikely to generate the required awareness among the specific target audience of second level schools, sports clubs and other youth organisations.

The Department would be willing to explore other avenues to make our staff aware of the Amber Flag initiative through our intranet site and/or through other appropriate means.

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