Our Work

Individual

KYSS works with young people on their own to help them deal with any difficulties and make progress.

Many young people live in challenging circumstances, many struggle to cope without support, and many need a bit of help to make progress in their lives and choices. Our Health Support Worker have experiences engaging and developing effective professional relationships with young people and adults so that KYSS can provide tailored support to meet the needs of individuals Over the past 12 months we have provided individual support to a large number of people and helped them with such difficulties as:

Our work creates a new holistic way of working between schools and other support services, fusing a traditional educational/health service approach with a youth work approach. This gives the person time and space, to help them work through the issues preventing them from achieving and enjoying day to day life.

Our Health Support Worker will tailor the support to meet the needs of each individual, offering mentoring, coaching, family supporting, counselling, liaison with schools, supporting individual to gain confidence and skills and more.


Family Support

KYSS offers support for families and individuals who need help. Family life is not always easy, life events like birth, death, depression, redundancy, separation, illness, abuse or financial problems all put stress and strain on family life and relationships.

Simply having someone to talk to about your problem can be the easiest way to begin to deal with your problem. There are many support groups for adults, teenagers, children and carers that give people the chance to tell their own stories and give support to each other. Specialist services provide support for domestic violence or child abuse.

The Health Support Worker deals with your concerns in confidence and will guide you to the appropriate support, advice and guidance.


Community

Schools (Primary, Post-Primary and Colleges): 

We work in conjunction with the schools by offering talks to students on minding their mental health and well-being and providing relevant information to staff and students. 

Guest Speakers:

KYSS hosts series of free talks on mental health and well-being by guest speakers. For example;

Dr Chris Luke - A Little Nightclub Medicine; Caring for the Party Animals

Joanne O' Riordan - A Night with Joanne O' Riordan

John Lonergan and Caroline Crotty - Parenting; Raising Your Child in Ireland

Aisling Thompson - Physical and Mental Health Awareness

KYSS - Let's Talk; Open Discussion on Mental Health Awareness

John Lonergan and Caroline Crotty - Parenting; The Challenges and The Rewards

Edel Foley - Adolescent Development and Substance Abuse Issues in the 21st Century

Zelda Di Blasi - Positive Psychology applied to reduce stress and build resiliance amongst young people

Liam Docey - Parenting with Confidence

Sean O' Fallon - Dealing Effectively with Bullying

Conor Cusack - Mental Health and Well-being

Robert O' Connell - Minding Young People's Health; focusing on Anxiety

Liam Docey - Minding Young People's Health; focusing on Sexual Health 

Brian Lennon - Minding Young People's Health; focusing on Cyberbullying and Bullying

 

safeTalks:

What is a safeTALK? safeTALK is a training programme that prepares participants to identify persons with thoughts of suicide and connect them to suicide first aid resources. These specific skills are called suicide alertness and are taught with the expectation that persons learning them will use them to reduce suicide risk in their communities. In conjunction with Breaking The Silence Cobh, 96 people have been trained to date in Safe Talk practices. 

Darkness Into Light Walk:

KYSS hosts Darkness into Light 5km walk on May 11th every year at 4:15am on behalf of Pieta House. Symbolically this walk represents the therapeutic counselling journey. It sparks conversation about the importance of mental health and wellbeing in all our lives. The entry fees raised around the world allows Pieta House and their international charity partners to continue to deliver vital services. 

Out-Reach Programme:

The Mise (My Life) booklet has been adapted nationally by other organisations and by the HSE Cork Kerry Community Healthcare. 


MISE (My Life)