This month I’m linking to two stories, both concerned with mental health.
The first is about both an organisation and an event. Pieta House is an Irish charity dedicated to the understanding and prevention of suicidal thoughts. It provides counseling services for those experiencing suicidal thoughts and for people bereaved by suicide. It’s services are backed up by an extensive research programme aimed at establishing which services are most effective and how they might be improved.
In 2009 it began a series of annual walks that take place at dawn on the second Saturday in May. That first walk, over a 5km course, took place in Dublin’s Phoenix Park. The idea was that participants would raise funds for the oganisation whilst the progress from pre-dawn darkness into the light of day symbolises the journey from the darkness of suicidal thoughts to the light of understanding that the organisation hopes that both it and its clients undertake.
Dubbed Darkness Into Light (#DIL)*, walks will take place at 4:15am on May 12th this year at 180 venues across Ireland and in 10 other countries around the world. Last year 180,000 individuals took part. It is not too late to register and participate in the experience of walking from darkness into light at a venue near you if you live in Canada, Iceland, the United Kingdom, Germany, Poland, South Africa, South Korea, New Zealand, Australia or, of course, Ireland.
Meanwhile, earlier this week an artwork was unveiled in Dublin. The work of Irish street artist Joe Caslin, it was intended to provide publicity for the national broadcaster’s series of programmes about youth mental health.
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*You might be struck, as I was, by the similarity between the walk title and the strap line of #WATWB.
Frank Parker's author site 
Thank you for this lovely post Frank. How wonderful that DIl’s initiative takes people walking from dawn into the light as a way of highlighting mental illness. This is so symbolic – I’m pleased to see that there is one in South Africa – I’ll check it out. Great #WATWB ..
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Let me know how you get on – there may not be one close enough to where you llve. In which case, maybe you could organise one in your neighbourhood (next year!)
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There’s one in Cape Town, not in Johannesburg where I live. I FB’d it and alerted it for Cape Tonians – 🙂
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I was most pleased to see this post of yours, Frank. Not only for our WATWB, but for suicide prevention and support. Coming from a family where we lost a loved one to suicide I really appreciate initiatives such as Pieta and that street art is working with this. Thanks for sharing.
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I am so glad to read your post; our centre here in Hyderabad India was born because of the suicides in the campus. Hence suicide prevention is one of our top priorities and we constantly keep conducting awareness programmes in the institutions and collaborate with other organisations who work on mental health. I have participated in a 2k run organised by the telengana psychiatric society in our city in the month of October, 2017 and also talk about it regularly in our centre. Thanks for sharing.
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And thank you for sharing your experience.
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