 Now, the Donegal Wellness Cafes, well, a lot of us are familiar with them and the one behind them, Sharon Ferguson, has just actually launched a toolkit and this is aimed at the people who might want to set up a wellness café and give them literally the tools to do that or an outline as to how it can and should be done. But they've also recently had two healthcare award nominations. This is national recognition and one one of them. And I'm delighted now that Sharon joins me in the studio. Sharon, congratulations. First of all. Thank you, John. The one that you won was what? Patient lifestyle and education, I think. It is, says it here actually, 100% right. But it's the national recognition, I suppose, that makes a difference, is it? Absolutely. You know, you think you're up here in Donegal and, you know, people don't really sometimes people don't even know where we are. It's like, you know, and it seems so far away. And the model has been established since 2019. And has it looked and Donegal, it has the recognition, but to receive that national that, you know, a group of people down the country looked at our submission, seen the work that was being done and acknowledged that, you know, so it's not about, you know, like I the recognition, but I think it's the acknowledgement of the cafes across the county and the work that's done week and week out, you know, there's 14 of them that are running. So it's an acknowledgement for them. Explain the concept and how they work. So the concept of the cafes, it's really about a social model. So I have been working in services and, you know, there's there's mental health services here in Donegal, and there's lots of great programs. But they last eight weeks, six weeks, whatever, and people come out and they attend. And then you're kind of just saying to people right away back home now until the next things put on fee. And I noticed a gap around, you know, just that social piece that people just would meet up like you or I for a cup of tea or coffee and just have a chat. Wellness cafes aren't new. But ours is unique in Donegal for a number of reasons. First off, when I first sat down with people to talk about, you know, a wellness cafe, what it would look like. The first thing this is was we do on another support group. It is not that. But what it is, is a supportive environment. The second thing is that it's not funded. So it sits within businesses. So it's self funded. So people come in, pay for their own teas and coffees. And this is what makes it unique. So the model is very unique to Donegal. Other cafes are funded in certain ways. And there's variations of wellness cafes. But really, it was they fill that gap of that social piece for people. You know, there was people, you know, who've been in services, mental health services for a very long time and had no social outlets. They didn't feel part of their own communities. They were coming on to services. They were, as I say, joining programs. But there was not sustainable or not. And they could say they could pop on day every week. Also the fact that there's no expectation. So if you come to like a group, there's an expectation that, you know, if it's a mental health group, you're going to talk about mental health or, you know, there's an expectation in people. The wellness cafe is not that there's no expectation. It is literally most cafes run around the 10 to 12 time frame across the county. It's literally people just coming on for a tea and coffee and a chat and about a crack. It's really about the environment that's provided. It's what people do there is people know that it's a safe environment. But beyond that, chat about whatever they want to chat about, chat to whoever they want to chat to and stay for as long as you like. Yeah, it's really as a drop in and the connection, you know, because that was the thing. People didn't feel connected with them, their own communities. Now, when we started in Letter County, I suppose, look, we're urban, it's a big town, you know, there's more opportunity for people to connect. And there's a bit of anonymity as well, because there's still a lot of stigma around mental health. Now, not so much mental health. That's probably wrong because there's a lot of talk around mental health, but we don't talk about mental illness. And there's a lot of stigma still attached to that. So people even get into, you know, like a community center, if it was say it was sat in a community center and community centers, I'll agree with me in this because they've seen this. They won't cross over the threshold because such and such works there and knows everything. And there's an attachment to that, where with sitting within a business, you know, there is a cafe, like you're just coming in like everybody else does. Absolutely. You know, and some people might find that hard to grasp it, or like people could just couldn't go on and sit and have cups of teas and coffee. There's a lot of people isolated that didn't have, you know, somebody to go and have a cup of tea or coffee with or didn't feel comfortable. So the wellness cafes opened that up. Don't have what the rest of us sort of take for granted. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. So it fills that gap. Fills that gap. And the beauty of having it in 14 different centers is there's there's one, you know, fairly near you. Yes. Yeah. They're all around the county and they work in different ways. They all look a wee bit different. And that was important to us as well. Like we set up and let our Kenny, we, I wrote training to capture our learning because I knew I kind of knew, you know, I think all our people is going to look to have this. So, you know, how can we capture what we're doing that we can share that experience. But it was very important for us when we went out around other towns and villages across the county that they had their own autonomy and that they could, you know, because the needs are different in different places. You know, some areas struggle with transport, some areas around the county are maybe very seasonal. You know, so cafes struggle. Size fits all. It's just you've been doomed to failure almost doomed to failure, you know, so suppose the core of it and the core values of the cafe is really what we impress on people, you know, like, you know, this is what it's set up for. Number one, it's not a support group. You don't need funding to run it. That peers and we talk about peers and mental health services. We talk about people with loved experience. But then again, we've all got loved experience, you know, we have all struggled with our mental health at some point in our lives, you know, with various things. But peers is used in that context and mental health. So the peers are leading it. So it's the people with loved experience are at the heart of it. And, you know, and services and everything else, then come on around and support them to facilitate the cafes every week. So it's somebody there. And that it's just a welcoming spot, you know. So if I'm in Malin or Glen Column Kill or Dunlore St Johnson or whatever, and thinking that might be a good fit for me, I wouldn't, you know, I wouldn't mind going along to one of them. Where do I find out about it? So we have a Facebook page, Donegal Wellness Cafes, and two of our peers, Marie and Noreen are great at managing that page. And so there's, they would update every week on where, you know, what cafes are on where there is like a map of the county and all the dates and times of all the cafes where they're on the days of the week. They vary. Yes, they do vary. So some cafes like Letter County would be weekly, Lufford is weekly. There's a few of them that are on weekly. And the Rossgill Peninsula, so Downings and Remelton, they do like Fortnite about, you know, so they alternate their cafe. And in a way, they're as good as the people that come along to them and want to have a better word to support them. But it's not about supporting them. It's just about coming along and kind of supporting yourself or, you know, and what I'm imagining here is it would help people who are on a journey, who are people who might be, you know, have some mental health struggles, and there's just maybe a bridge could just could be, it could be a bridge for a while. And that's that's all it would take, but would be an important one. Yeah. And I think the fact that there's no expectation, you know, like I remember when we first took it out, you know, outside of Letter Kelly and out to smaller towns and people were looking and going, but what do we have to do? What do we have to do? And I was just that's what they're used to. Yeah, because we're very good. Ireland is renowned. We are great at doing for people. You know, we're such a kind nation, you know, we're so giving. But what I would have found working with people, you know, especially with long term mental health challenges, whatever, you know, when we're constantly doing for, we are not giving them capacity to do anything for themselves. So the cafes are very much about doing what that was the ethos, you know, the people would come and pay for their own tea and coffee. You know, it holds something for them because then it's not like I'm going to my grip today. It's I'm going out to meet my friends for tea and coffee. And the fact I have never, the cafes are going since 2019. And I've never heard one complaint about somebody saying, I have to I come here and I have to pay for my own to your coffee. You know, the very much you get it when you come there. It's very hard to do. It's so simple. But it's effective. People must get it. As soon as there's now 14 of them in Donegal, and people come back to them time and time again. And the beauty is, you can come back the next time that it's on or not. It's entirely up to you. That's how to drop in. They're all dropping, you know, and look, they won't fit everybody. You know, people's not there's not one size fits all. And as you say it already, some people might not get it. And you know, might not be comfortable on it. But for the most part, yeah, people come back, they drop on and out. Like we'd a lady down in our letter, Kenny cafe this morning, who came who brought her son along. And she says, you know, I really feel this could be beneficial for me. I'd love to come back here for myself. You know, and that's what it looks like. And you just drop in. There's no expert. I mean, if our cafe is on half 10 to 12, you can come on 11 and leave at half 11. You know, nobody's saying it's half 10. It's starting, you know, or you have to leave at 12 o'clock. They could be still sitting there at half 12 one. But I would imagine that peers are important to have on board and and to retain because just somebody needs to for want of a better word over CHS, make sure that it's set up, run smoothly and then step back or whatever. Yeah, so we have so there's development groups across the county. So they would consist of the peers, the people we love to experience, HSE mental health staff, social prescribing have been a huge, you know, addition to this and supporting people around the cafes. And then obviously the community and voluntary sector who've really ruled on behind it. So the role of the development group as they, you know, keep the cafe going every week. So we would train up what we call peer facilitators and their kind of role within the cafe is if there is a new person coming on that they would be greeted and you know, because it's nervous coming through the threshold for anybody and to any new environment. So that would be their role. And we would do other things like first fortnight. So there's other things that have spun off because of the cafes. So I would involve the peers and a lot of stuff like that around like should it be presenting a conferences, the model has, you know, we've been asked to try to day we've been to try to day now three times to their international conference. We were in Oxford to the Mental Health Nursing, academic researchers last year, we've been invited back this year. You know, there's real appetite for it. And I bring the peers with me and it's an opportunity for them to stand up and talk about the cafes, you know, and spaces that they never would have, you know, got to do before we have two peers from the cafes who sit on a national panel. I would have sat on the Donegal Mental Health Management team as a service user rep. So it's about that piece. It's them having their voice heard with on mental health services, but an in a group that is supportive of them, you know, to do that is really important to the peer element of it is key that network that we're trying to build across the county. So that people with loved experience of mental health challenges, you know, don't feel on their own and feel part of something bigger. And I just I don't know, it just brings something people are so like happy to be part of it, you know, and celebrating that they're part of the cafes. And the beauty of this toolkit is that anyone beyond Donegal can can take it and follow the guidelines and set up a wellness cafe. Yes, we've had a few calls from the cork and Claire and, you know, I've said it and said it numerous occasions. So the cafes aren't funded. We did when we first started Donegal Mind Wellness and Miguel O'Donnell was very kind and giving us some funding to roll out the training across the county, but the cafes on of themself are not so we don't have capacity to be traveling to cork and Claire, you know, to set up cafes. So the toolkit was the best way to go. We hoping to do a big launch of hot now in early September and share it broad and wide. So wherever you are, if you want to set up a wellness cafe, the tool gets there, it's a guide, you know, it's how we done it worked for us. And we're just trying to share our knowledge, you know, and the barriers and challenges that we so that you can anticipate them. It's very honest. And it's and it was co produced, you know, everybody's had their eyes on it and everybody has them put it on to it. So that will be launched now in early September, when we get the final final draft. Okay, well, listen, it was a brilliant concept. And it's been a brilliant success 14 around Donegal. No doubt many more dotted around the country before very long. And the best look with the toolkit as well. And bear mind this is, you know, led by peers, and it's all volunteers. So it's, it's, you know, I described I mentioned that it almost sounds like a movement. Well, in a way it is. And it's as strong as the people who who use it who come along weekly or biweekly or whatever. Yeah, absolute look up wouldn't be I mean, I said when I started, I wasn't I wrote the model I developed it, but I says I'm not running wellness cafe, so don't have the capacity. And it is it's the people on the ground week and week out, you know, that deserve the credit for this. They do keep it going. And the peer network that's building across the county. And it's really great to see that we have a voice for mental health services across the country. And there's regular updates on social media. Check it out. Wellness cafes. Sharon, thank you very much. John, thank you so much for having me. Thank you.