This morning.
Peter Mark, Grafton Street, Dublin 2.
Stylists – from left: Lauryn Bradley, Joanne McManus and Rebecca Byas – launch the Petermarkathon 2021. The annual fundraiser – run across Peter Mark salons in Ireland from October 10-30 – will see Peter Mark employees take part in ‘a host of events including raffles and fancy-dress parties’ to raise funds for Pieta House.
Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland
Sinn Féin TD Mark Ward questioned the funding to Pieta House
Yesterday.
The Dáil, Leinster House.
Sinn Féin TD Mark Ward asked the Minister for Health Simon to explain how the funding of €346,000 per quarter to suicide charity Pieta House – to cover 300 hours of therapy per quarter for high-risk clients – is being spent.
Mark Ward: “I will ask a brief question and the Minister’s response will allow me to ask any further questions I may need to. Last week we had a brief discussion about Pieta House and the additional services that will be provided during and post Covid-19. Will the Minister clarify whether the 300 hours that he stated will be provided for therapy for high-risk clients are per month or per quarter?”
Simon Harris: “According to my note, it is 300 hours per quarter. The funding is being provided to fund an additional 300 hours for high-risk clients and the quarterly review will ensure that any client who commences a programme of support can have reasonable assurance of its completion. The cashflow supports are also contingent on a continuation between the HSE and Pieta House. I will confirm that in writing to the Deputy but that is my understanding.”
Ward: “Last week the Minister stated there was additional funding of more than €343,000 to provide 300 hours of therapy per quarter for high-risk clients. I also have a written response from the Minister that reiterates that.
This works out at €1,146 per hour for therapy sessions. The average cost of a psychotherapy session is in the region of €70 to €120 per hour. If, for example, 300 sessions were charged at the higher end of the average – €120 per hour – that would cost the State €36,000. The State is paying Pieta House more than €343,000 to provide the same service. That is a difference of €307,000 per quarter.
I have also received information from some self-employed therapists who have contacted me and other members of my party and who counsel clients for Pieta House. They charge them only €24 per hour, yet the State is funding Pieta House to the tune of €1,146 per hour.
The Government, as the Minister said, has already invested heavily in Pieta House, to the tune of €2.03 million per year, and Pieta House has also availed of the wage subsidy scheme. Despite this, several staff were let go and others have been offered redundancy.
Will the Minister inform the House exactly where this funding is being directed? Is any of the additional funding being used to pay for the redundancies?
Does the Minister think we are getting value for money at €1,146 per therapy session when it would cost the State €120 per hour, or €24 per hour if a self-employed therapist at Pieta House was hired? The State should provide such services and not rely on a charity to do so. Pieta House provides an essential service but it is essential only due to the lack of investment in mental health by this and previous Governments.
Harris: “I thank the Deputy and note his sincere and strong interest in the issue of mental health. I could outline, although I do not have the time now, what we are doing to beef up the public mental health services but I agree with the Deputy that Pieta House does a really good job. It is very well regarded by people throughout our country, as was seen in recent weeks in terms of how people responded to the fundraising call from Pieta House.
My understanding is that the HSE and Pieta House have formally agreed to that additional funding, as the Deputy rightly noted, of €114,608 per month, or €343,824 per quarter, and that will be provided once the current Government staffing cost schemes, which Pieta House has availed of, have ceased. It is to help keep staff.
The HSE has also committed to providing cashflow support on a monthly basis, with the position to be reviewed after each quarter. The funding is being provided to fund an additional 300 hours of high-risk clients and a quarterly review will ensure anybody who commences a programme can complete it.
As I said when we spoke last week, the cashflow support is contingent on the continuation of that engagement between the HSE and Pieta House on a more sustainable funding model for the organisation.
Work has been ongoing between the HSE and Pieta for some time on how to ensure that the funding will be sustainable into the future. That ongoing engagement is required in return for the cashflow support.”
Hmm.
Anyone?
Previously: I Pieta The Fool
Transcript via Oireachtas.ie
Last night
Dublin Lord Mayor Niall Ring (above centre) unveils the ‘Wall of Hope’ – by Subset – on behalf of suicide charity Pieta & Electric Ireland – created to officially launch Darkness into Light 2019 – the fundraiser expected to attract over 250,000 participants this May 11.
Register here
Pic: James Crombie/INPHO
Thanks Fintan O’Callaghan
Joan Freeman launching her Presidential cam,paign City Assembly House South William Dublin 2 this morning.
Presidential candidate and Independent Senator Joan Freeman did not donate her Seanad salary to the suicide prevention charity she founded, Pieta House, as she pledged to do.
Shortly after her nomination, Ms Freeman stated she would donate her €66,277 salary from the role to Pieta House, where she had served as chief executive until the end of 2014.
Ms Freeman instead donated €41,000 to Solace House, a separate New York-based charity she set up in 2015…Financial statements from Pieta House state the US service would be an “arm’s length domestic not-for-profit corporation” incorporated in New York. The project was initially funded by a €72,258 grant from the Department of Foreign Affairs…
Good times.
Joan Freeman did not donate Seanad salary to Pieta House as pledged (Irish Times)
Susie Dardis writes:
Wake Up! Be Kind! How we treat each other is a matter of life and death. Wake up and walk with us for Pieta House at Darkness into Light on May 12th 2018
Short snippet of our take on @PTXofficial Hallelujah ahead of Ardú & Friends this Sat @antainarts. Tickets €15/12 in aid of @PietaHouse from https://t.co/DB5vVdkZiR – Full video over on our Facebook page #IrishAcappella pic.twitter.com/ziyGdJG7Sm
— Ardú (@ArduVocal) December 12, 2017
Tomorrow night at 8pm.
At An Táin Arts Centre in Dundalk, Co Louth.
Ardú tweetz:
Have you booked your tickets for tomorrow night at Antain Arts in Dundalk, Co Louth? Christmas classics with an acappella twist In aid of Pieta House.
Tickets €12/€15.
Enda O’Doherty will carry a Beko washing machine to the summit of Africa’s highest peak, Mount Kilimanjaro in aid of Pieta House in July.
Waterford man Enda O’Doherty will climb Kilimanjaro this summer in aid of suicide charity Pieta House carrying a Beko washing machine.
Gulp.
Enda writes:
In July 2017 I intend to carry my washing machine to the summit of Africa’s highest peak, Mount Kilimanjaro. My goal is simple, I aim to raise vital funds for Pieta House and to spread a positive mental health message. Most people ask, why a washing machine?
From my side, it’s very simple, the Washing Machine that I’m carrying symbolises the heavy hidden load that many people carry and stay quiet. We are aiming to raise awareness and also raise funds for Pieta House and every little helps.
In fairness.
Donate here
Free Friday?
A fundraising sale of dramatic images of Dublin at night by Andy Sheridan (no stranger to ‘sheet readers) in aid of suicide charity Pieta House.
Via The Irish Times:
And so to the idea of doing something for Pieta House this weekend. As Andy Sheridan says, everyone has their reasons when it comes to Darkness Into Light. His come from the death of his brother Seán, who took his own life in 2015. None of this is explainable, none of it is easy. You do what you can do.
And for this week, in this place, this is what Andy Sheridan can do. Show 36 photos of Dublin in darkness, shards of lights poking and flashing here and there, in the hope that people will like them and buy them and help lighten some of the load carried every day by Pieta House.
“He had his reasons, I guess,” Andy says of his brother. “Though that’s of little consolation. I, and everyone else who knew him, still keenly feel the pain and chaos that continue to reverberate from that burst of dark energy. Which is why I have decided to try, in my way, to do something to help.”
Dublin after dark: one photographer’s journey around the city (Malachy Clerkin, Irish Times)
‘sup?
Joan Freeman, founder of [Suicide and self harm crisis centre] Pieta House at the launch of Darkness into Light 2016, supported by Electric Ireland, on the Sam Beckett bridge, Dublin.
Darkness Into Light running events will take place in over 100 venues in Ireland and across the world on Saturday May 7 at 4.15am [register at link below].
Sasko Lazarov/Rollingnews
Free Thursday?
Want to challenge your perception of masculinity?
Want to explore how men can build a strong team around themselves and each other to support one another through all life’s events?
Read on.
Oliver of Pieta House [self harm/suicide prevention centre] writes:
We’re hosting an event with Joe.ie called ‘The Bounce of the Ball’ in Dublin’s Chocolate Factory [King’s Inns] on November 19th from 7pm to mark International Men’s Day and tie in with the work Pieta House do and, in particular, our Mind Our Men campaign.
Speakers on the night include Eoghan McDermott, Jack McGrath, Paul Flynn and Joe Caslin – each of them will discuss the ups and downs of life and how support is crucial when the bounce of the ball doesn’t go your way.
