Join us at the start of Men’s Health Week, Monday 15th June, 12pm – 1pm, to hear from a range of speakers who will share their insights and experience on the key theme for the week, One Step at a Time – progress not perfection. Speakers include: Poet and Mental Health Advocate, @DaraghFleming Broadcaster and Entrepreneur, Bobby Kerr Founder of the innovative 'Be OK Garage’ promoting mental health, Dave Smith Social Prescriber and Screening Champion, Lewis Byrne HSE Project Manager, Bláthín Casey To support accessibility, an Irish Sign Language (ISL) interpreter will be present for the full duration of the webinar. Register here: us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi…

Today the Minister of State for Public Health, Wellbeing and the National Drugs Strategy @JenMurnaneOConn launched the Realist Evaluation of Social Prescribing Services in Ireland, she is photographed below at the launch this morning with colleagues from the @roinnslainte, HSE Health and Wellbeing and @GalwayHPRC . The study aimed to engage with stakeholders to strengthen the evidence for social prescribing by providing a context-sensitive evaluation, to capture the breadth and complexity of social prescribing in Ireland. To develop a number of recommendations, the research team consulted with and outlined the views of many stakeholders. Social Prescribing service users themselves were the main group consulted and some of their views are included below: “Well. Some other life events have happened, so I'm back. I have resumed my course at the university. I have a routine, you know, like I'm back to my normal life, so to speak, but I think social prescribing was crucial for me when I was in that time period a few months ago, where I was in that slump. I suppose, you know. It was really important that. It was the only good thing going on for me at the time.” (SUEst03) “I describe myself as a deflated balloon or a flat balloon, and I need to reflate. And that's what that does for me. It keeps my spirits up. It's maintenance, I think if I didn’t have it, I’d be going downhill, but this way I'm, you know, I’m maintaining, and it's dreadfully important that I do because I can't afford to slump, you know” (SUEst01) “It gives me more confidence, I'd lot of confidence before, but then as life happens, you know, you kind of lose a bit of confidence. And then when you know you can kind of socialise again with people you know and yeah, that's nice. And that's your groups out there you can just take it out of the house too, because I do get out of the house.” (SUNew01) Full report is available here: lnkd.in/ey9jA9Cz @profmaryhorgan @aislingsheehan @orlawal