Kilkenny services facing rising challenges

Two Kilkenny charities are calling for further action from the government to ease the country’s ongoing housing and mental health crises.

The Good Shepherd Centre and Teac Tom have been on the frontline locally in recent weeks to assist the most vulnerable in the community during the Christmas period.

“On the one hand, this country has never experienced such affluence. There’s money being spent on housing that has never been spent before and yet in the middle of this, homeless numbers continue to increase,” The Good Shepherd Centre’s Noel Sherry commented.

“The situation is not good despite all the money being pumped into it,” he added. Worryingly, up to 25% of service users are working full-time.

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Meanwhile, a lack of resources in the mental health sector continue to stifle any progress according to Teac Tom’s Fiona O’Neill.

“There’s not enough available supports even when someone has struggled with their mental health before or has had suicidal thoughts. There’s no follow up afterwards to make sure the person is okay but it comes back to not enough resources in the system,” she claimed.

These deficiencies are perhaps felt most at Christmas as mental health struggles are heightened.

“It’s a time of year where they think about family members who they’ve lost through suicide so it’s the domino affect that suicide has on a family. Thousands of families who are still mourning and grieving someone,” O’Neill said.

So, with such struggles, community goodwill are key in helping combat both issues with the public asked to be ‘kind’ and mindful of people’s hidden struggles.