Turn2me.org is an online mental health support platform aimed at providing help to anyone who needs to get something off their chest, no matter how big or small it is…
In a world of increasing technology use, it’s nice to know that there’s somewhere to turn online when you’re not quite feeling like yourself. A lot of people, especially us men, seem to have a problem with opening up when it comes to mental health issues and suicide, but thanks to Turn2me.org there’s a supportive environment that we can all use from the comfort of, well, anywhere that has a keyboard…
We have no problem speaking our minds online when it comes to critiquing a certain referee’s performance over the weekend or what we think of the latest generation of gaming consoles, so why not open up online when it comes to more personal matters?
Recently, JOE had a chat with the co-founder of Turn2me.org, Oisin Scollard, to find out what the forum is all about.
Turn2me.org is an online mental health support platform, set up by Oisin and his brother Diarmuid Scollard in 2009, after the tragic loss of their brother, Cormac to suicide.
The brothers had a vision to merge technology and psychology together. Turn2me.org is now supporting almost 30,000 people, and has saved countless lives to suicide. The platform offers online services through fully moderated support forums by highly trained and supervised moderators. Professional services are offered through professional group supports and 1:1 counselling.
Speaking further on the services and the mission of Turn2Me.org, Oisin said: “The mission of Turn2me.org is to be a Lifeline Online. So our mission was always to setup a peer-based community online, and then evolve that into professional services. There are now four professionally monitored services available on the site.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSpeKGkgW_E
“Turn2me.org recently launched Engage (www.turn2me.org/engage), which offers people in Ireland, 8 weeks of professional online counselling and charts and connects progress through a developed dashboard and technology solution.
“Turn2me.org is there to help people over 18, in Ireland and beyond. There are now 30,000 registered members, with the substantive demographic in 18-25, and 25-45 being evenly split.”
Oisin informed us that one in four people will suffer with a mental health related illness, and there is suicide every 82 minutes in Ireland and the UK. The problem has also worsened with the recession.
“Our plan is to scale our services, and offer more professional supports online. We have designed a new approach to helping more people online, and want to roll this out. We want to go truly mobile with our services. Turn2me.org is now growing at a rate of 100% each year, in terms of members and calls on services.
“Turn2me.org are always looking for funding and further investment, so they can scale more and help more people. They are asking Irish people and business to pledge to them, in one of three ways:
- Direct investment/donations
- Through technology support and partnership
- Through helping us promote/advertise our services, especially Engage.
The lads at Turn2me.org offering free Engage placements for Irish men for the next eight weeks, so if there’s something bothering you, or if you think one of the lads back home has been feeling a bit down lately, make sure to share and let them know there’s always someone listening. Click here to find out more about Engage.
For more about the services provided by Turn2me.org make sure to check out the website here.
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