Watch: Inspire Wellbeing Derry has changed my life says member

Inspire Wellbeing is celebrating its 65th anniversary and 35 years of working in Derry, and to mark the occasion they held an open day at their Patrick Street premises on Thursday to give people and organisations a chance to see what the group do to help benefit local communities.

The group supports people with mental health illness, intellectual disabilities, autism and those suffering from addictions.

Judith Taylor is the manager of Foyle Wellbeing.

“We offer a range of courses, therapeutic and recreational to individuals in the community,” said Judith, who has been part of the organisation for 21 years.

“I just love it. I've worked for Inspire since 2003, it's just so rewarding, the people are fantastic and are good craic every day.

"I just can't say enough positive stuff about it.”

Speaking about the open day, project worker, Declan McDonnell, said: “We are trying to expand the service and put ourselves out there, allowing people to view what we do on a day-to-day basis. It shines a good spotlight on us. It's a positive thing for us today.

“It's not easy to come in the front door sometimes, it is challenging for people who deal with anxiety and other mental health issues. We try to be friendly on approach and warming, open arms.”

Declan spoke on the support Inspire brings to Derry. “Mental health is a blackspot in this area, it has been like that for a while,” said Declan. “Many people blame societal changes for that, they blame financial reasons or addiction issues.

“I believe this has a lot to do with generational trauma, a lot of people have not been able to deal with their past, specifically the troubles.

“I have noticed since I started working here two years ago that a lot of people can come in and explore that and benefit from the services we offer.”

Building a community is part of Inspire, Declan said. “Peer support is a key thing that we have been able to develop through the service. The drop-in element is allowing people to develop relationships and build rapport with each other.

“We run a men’s wellbeing group, I run that myself on Monday. They find a lot of peer support from that, and they've developed a close bond with each other.”

Lastly, the Journal spoke with Maureen O’Hagan. Maureen lives with personality disorder and bipolar disorder.

Maureen said that before she joined Inspire Wellbeing, she felt like had been living in a box but now she feels like she is coming out of the box.

“Inspire Wellbeing has changed my life,” Maureen said. “All my life, I have lived with horrors. Sometimes my mood goes up and down, but I learned how to control my mood. It was important to me because of my children.”

Continuing, Maureen said: “I've learned how to stand up for myself, how to say yes or no and how to communicate with other people.

"The most important thing I have found here is trust. They know what's said in the room stays in the room, everything is so confidential, that's important.

"The help you get here is just tremendous.”

Inspire Wellbeing can be found in the Old Factory building on Patrick Street, or you can call call them here: 028 7126 9677

If want to know more about Inspire Wellbeing you can find their website here: https://www.inspirewellbeing.org/