Donegal Wellness Café ‘shout from the rooftops’ following Irish Healthcare Centre award

The Donegal Wellness Café has won a top prize at the Irish Healthcare Centre Awards 2023, taking home the Healthcare Initiative Patient Education/Lifestyle Project award. 

The ceremony took place at the Royal Marine Hotel Dun Laoghaire on Friday, with Donegal Wellness Café delighted with their award. 

“We would like to shout from the rooftops that we have won an Irish Healthcare Award,” they posted. “Thanks to everyone who comes each week to every one of our 15 wellness cafes and supports our efforts to put people who experience mental health difficulties at the very centre of our cafes. 

“We were represented by key members of the team in Dublin. Thanks to all our peer facilitators who attend each of the cafes each week and who put lived experience at the centre of everything we do.”

The Donegal Wellness Café were also nominated for the Healthcare Initiative Mental Health Care award

This process was the foundation for the development of the Wellness Cafes in Donegal. There are currently 15 cafes established in Donegal with the latest addition in the Atlantic Technological University Letterkenny Donegal where the students are verbalising the benefits of being involved.

The Wellness Café initiative was developed in Donegal by people with lived experience of Mental Health illness and clinicians working in the service.

This engagement was born because service users of mental health services needed not to be seen as patients but as individuals with knowledge, ability, creativity, rights and ownership over their own recovery.

The idea was to create a space in the local community for people with lived experience to meet up socially in a local café with staff from the services to discover themselves, find out what they need to know, and develop quality in their recovery journey. 

Everyone goes to the Café for themselves and the feedback has been phenomenal. It is real empowerment in action. People have discovered themselves, found new ways of engagement, learned from others, and developed friendships and confidence to try new ways of being. There is no them and us only we. No stigma and people have found their sense of purpose and identity.

The Wellness Café model has grown from one initially in 2019 to 15 across Donegal, reflecting the need and relevance of having one in the local community. This model supports people in their recovery journey and promotes Wellness. 

When organised, people with lived experience have so much to offer and gain from engagement with each other and with clinicians in their local communities. The success of this initiative will empower those who have given time and commitment to its development and encourage others to mobilise their communities and services to follow suit.