The pressures of modern life have left people with little time for voluntary work and mental health community groups are suffering, a conference will hear today.
The Mental Health Ireland (MHI) conference in Wexford, which will be attended by hundreds of delegates from local groups and health service providers from throughout the country, will discuss, among other topics, ways to encourage volunteers to work in the sector.
The chief executive of MHI, Brian Howard, said the services of thousands of members of the public has been central in efforts to help remove the stigma of mental illness and to give meaningful lives to people who would have been institutionalized had community care not been available.
"Local mental health associations now find themselves in competition for the limited time which busy people have available for voluntary activities," he said. "Our conference is an opportunity to hear from local groups about how we can ensure that those who use mental health services will continue to get the necessary levels of support within their own communities."
The conference's keynote address will be delivered tonight by Mary Davis, who was recently appointed chairwoman of the Government's Task Force on Active Citizenship. Minister of State at the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources John Browne is opening the event.
Workshops are scheduled for the weekend, covering such topics as suicide prevention, self-harm in young people and approaches to providing positive mental health education to primary school pupils.
MHI is the largest voluntary organisation in the mental health field. It promotes positive mental health at a national level and provides support in local communities for the mentally ill, their families and their carers, through a network of 104 associations.