{"id":800371,"date":"2026-10-12T17:14:17","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T17:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/800371\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T17:14:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T17:14:17","slug":"new-bench-unveiled-in-west-belfast-as-part-of-mental-health-campaign-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/800371\/","title":{"rendered":"New bench unveiled in west Belfast as part of mental health campaign \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new bench has been unveiled in west Belfast<\/a> as part of a mental health campaign aimed at addressing Northern Ireland\u2019s growing mental health crisis.<\/a><\/p>\n

A group of local residents walked through Falls Park<\/a> on Monday before unveiling a new \u2018Give 5\u2032 installation, which calls for action on the wider social and political factors contributing to poor mental health.<\/p>\n

The event followed World Mental Health Day on Saturday and formed part of F\u00e9ile na Carraige 2026.<\/p>\n

\"LocalLocal people take part in walk prior to the unveiling of New Script for Mental Health\u2019s new Give 5 installation bench in the Falls Park in west Belfast as part of F\u00e9ile na Carraige 2026. PICTURE: MAL MCCANN <\/p>\n

Beginning at Gl\u00f3r na M\u00f3na, the community walk was organised by grassroots campaign group New Script for Mental Health and led by activists with lived experience of what they describe as a \u201cbroken mental health system\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Almost<\/a>\"Jamie<\/a>\"TheThe unveiling of New Script for Mental Health\u2019s new Give 5 installation bench in the Falls Park in west Belfast as part of F\u00e9ile na Carraige 2026. PICTURE: MAL MCCANN <\/p>\n

New Script for Mental Health campaigner Sara Boyce said it comes at a time when the north<\/a> is facing a deepening mental health crisis, and the response from those in power needs to change.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the event, Sara told The Irish News:<\/a> \u201cPeople will be familiar with Take 5, the public health agency\u2019s messaging around what individuals need to do to maintain our mental health and keep us in balance, but there\u2019s something missing. The government needs to do more to address the things that are underneath.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings like violence against women<\/a>, poverty<\/a>, housing<\/a>, the unjust immigration system, these things are causing distress and despair. Take 5 is fine, but we also need the government to step up to its responsibilities and give 5. <\/p>\n

\"MauraMaura Campbell and Piper Regina Pendleton at the unveiling of New Script for Mental Health\u2019s new Give 5 installation bench in the Falls Park in west Belfast as part of F\u00e9ile na Carraige 2026. PICTURE: MAL MCCANN <\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a piper, Regina Pendleton, who piped us in and we had Gr\u00e1inne Holland, who\u2019s a well-known singer and storyteller, and Gr\u00e1inne sang for us as well, because we know how therapeutic music is. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnything that brings people together in community is how people can heal and how we can help each other heal. People cannot heal on their own in isolation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group has written an open letter to the Health minister, Robbie Butler<\/a>, calling on his department<\/a> to take action.<\/p>\n

Sara continued: \u201cMedication has its place but at the moment, it\u2019s out of balance. We don\u2019t have options beyond medication too often and we want them to adopt our Give 5 framework.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe unveiling of New Script for Mental Health\u2019s new Give 5 installation bench in the Falls Park in west Belfast as part of F\u00e9ile na Carraige 2026. PICTURE: MAL MCCANN <\/p>\n

Children as young as five have turned up at A&E with mental health concerns, according to figures released in August. That\u2019s as Mental health problems<\/a> accounted for more than 40% of the reasons given for being off sick in the Northern Ireland<\/a> civil service last year.<\/p>\n

In July 2026, the Department of Health announced the launch of the revised Code of Practice to the Mental Health (Northern Ireland) Order 1986. <\/p>\n

The collaborative approach, which began operating in September was described by previous Health Minister, Mike Nesbitt<\/a> as a \u2018major step forward\u2019.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThe updated Code is the result of extensive collaboration and genuine co production across a wide range of stakeholders, who have worked together with a shared purpose: to strengthen safeguards, improve clarity, and ensure that people are treated with dignity, respect and compassion at every stage.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new bench has been unveiled in west Belfast as part of a mental health campaign aimed at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":800372,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[31473,102,69223,2960,1906,6623,56,54,55,25888],"class_list":["post-800371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-falls-road","tag-health","tag-health-and-social-care","tag-healthcare","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-west-belfast"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/800372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}