Foyle Prevention Team is a 'big family' saving lives in Derry

The team of volunteers patrol the Foyle and provide support to people who are having a mental health crisis.

Rowhyn Gallagher and Natalie McCay are volunteers with the Foyle Prevention Team. Natalie used to go for walks on evenings when the team were out on patrol because she felt safe knowing they were there. After deciding to do more volunteering work as her new year’s resolution, she joined the organisation and never looked back.

She said: “We’re all like a big family and there’s great craic when you’re out on patrol. We’re dealing with very serious things and often with people’s lives but we keep each other’s spirits up too and really look out for each other.

"There’s not one person that’s out on our team that hasn’t been affected by mental health and it isn’t a taboo subject. There’s been times when I’ve come out and not been feeling great and they’ll put me on base as a point of contact instead of out on patrol so I’m taking it easy. For most volunteers, there’s no set location that you always work in. You move around each night and cover different areas and that variation is great."

18-years-old Rowhyn is still in secondary school but he hopes to go on to study medicine in university next year. He finds the work incredibly rewarding, although he says it’s not without its difficulties.

“You’re dealing with things that are of a very sensitive nature,” he said. “You can sometimes be frustrated because you can see how people have been left behind by the system. There are people you see over and over again and that’s quite hard to keep seeing them in that situation.”

“The whole system is flawed and there’s just not enough help out there for people who are struggling with their mental health,” said Natalie. “By the time people get to us, they have been failed that many times that they feel there is no way out of it. It plays on my mind a lot that some of the people we help aren’t going home to a safe, dry home with people around them for support. Oftentimes they’re left to the hospital where they can sign themselves out and not get the support they need. That’s why our Aftercare service is so important, because we can offer people additional support or signpost them to other services.”

Foyle Aftercare provides free counselling to members of the public and to the Prevention Team volunteers and can signpost to other mental health organisations in the city such as ARC Fitness and Aware NI.

Although the team often sees people return to them for unfortunate reasons, occasionally, someone will return to share how their situation is improving.

“We love it when people come back to see us to let us know how they’re getting on,” Rohwyn said.

Natalie works in a local supermarket and she has sometimes served people whose lives the organisation has saved. “It’s things like that that make you so glad we’re doing what we do.”

The Foyle Prevention Team and Aftercare has been running for around two years now but they are unable to get charity status because of the lack of a functioning Stormont Executive. This means they are unable to apply for funding and rely totally on public donations.

Rowhyn explained: “We’re completely self-funded so jackets, first aid kits and all other equipment is paid for by the organisation and we occasionally get a few spaces on training courses given to us for free.

“We’re always looking for more volunteers so if you’re someone who is enthusiastic about helping people, has an open mind to take on some training and would like to learn new skills, then you would love volunteering with us,” concluded Rowhyn.

Natalie added: “Everyone who volunteers with us has a job or is in full time education and there’s a lot of parents. You sometimes be tired but there’s no set amount of time for you to volunteer out there and every minute is appreciated. You can do an hour one night a week or you can do the full three nights, it doesn’t matter. When you’re out there, though, you end up staying because the craic’s so good you don’t want to leave!”

For more information on the Foyle Prevention Team, to avail of the Aftercare Service or to enquire about volunteering opportunities, visit www.facebook.com/Foyleprevention/

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