“We are extremely lucky with the support we get from our community”

STEPS (Suicide, Talking, Education, Prevention, Support) Draperstown have opened new premises in the High Street area of the County Derry village. 

The charity was founded in 2012 as a result of the rural village being branded ‘The Suicide Capital’ of Mid Ulster. 

Following this worrying news a group of local citizens came together to try and combat the growing issue. 

Project Co-Ordinator for STEPS, Karen McGuigan, spoke to the County Derry Post about pride in the local community and how none of this would be possible without their support. 

“All our thanks goes to our local community. Everything we do is down to them. We wouldn’t be able to do it without them,” said Karen. 

“Every bit of furniture in our new premises has been donated. We had nothing to buy. We have seen whole families come through our services and they are very kind in giving back. We are extremely lucky with the support we get from our community.”

ABOVE: STEPS Draperstown new premises 

Karen, who lost two cousins to suicide, got involved with the organisation after completing ASSIT (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training) at work.

“I had completed ASSIT in work through the Niamh Louise Foundation. I got talking to Catherine from the Foundation and she put the idea into my head of starting a similar project for Draperstown. I felt the community was afraid and didn’t know how to go about tackling the situation,” Karen said. 

“Catherine explained to me that you have to try and do something, there is nothing worse than doing nothing. She helped us to develop the launch. It went really well and we had a lot of people come to it, including the Suicide Prevention Officer for the Northern Trust, The Beravement Support Officer for people bereaved through suicide and a representative from Lifeline. That was really our start. It was starting to let people in the community know what was out there and everything went from there.” 
Continuing, Karen explained how the organisation has grown over the years.

 “When we started out we were in the local high school, we held all our meetings and classes there. Shortly after, Workspace kindly gave us a unit. Our counselling service started in 2016, our GP’s couldn’t cope with the demand for the service so we started taking on some of their clientele. We only had one counsellor and a clinical supervisor, we now have a team of ten,” she said.

“To date we have nearly delivered a total of 1,000 counselling sessions to 63 different towns and villages throughout this rural catchment area. The age range has been from four to 101. On average we have delivered around 170 to 190 counselling sessions a month. In January this year we saw 230 people and in February it was 220. We are not at capacity yet, but because we don’t get any statutory funding, we have to think if we can afford this. We have only ever been fit to do what we do thanks to our own community. In 2023 we were lucky and fought hard for funding from the Lottery fund and have been able to continue counselling sessions because of that.” 

Speaking on the invaluable work STEPS does in highlighting and offering support, Karen said: “We do a lot of work with young people, especially young men. We did a lot of events to get men out and talking, including football tournaments, charity cycles and runs. The young of the area have been great in working with us to develop a mental health workshop geared for them.After Covid we got them to review it again to see if it was still relevant. They came back to us saying yes but now we need more support. We are already in schools delivering workshops but we feel we need to get in younger classes and start those conversations. Currently Year 13/14 are helping us to develop a new programme called ‘What is Normal?’ This came off the back of young people coming through our services with the thoughts of ‘being weird’ and ‘not fitting in’. Young people are amazing and opening up and coming up with solutions so they are great to work with in that sense. The effects and pressures of Covid lockdowns and social media are massive on young people but once you give them that safe space to open up they are willing to do so.”

Karen concluded saying: “We have delivered to over 200 groups and the demand is ever growing. This includes schools, businesses, and churches. We will go anywhere if it means we get to start the conversation around mental health and suicide.”

For more information on S.T.E.P.S Draperstown, visit facebook.com/steps.mental.health