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'No counselling delays' says HSE
02.08.10
by Eamonn Mac Dermott, Inishowen Independent
THE Mayor of Buncrana Cllr Pádraig MacLochlainn has
said he is ‘encouraged’ by what has been achieved at
a meeting this week to look at a joint response
following the road tragedy in which eight people
died.
A meeting was held on Monday morning between
representatives of the HSE, the emergency services,
the Inishowen Development Partnership and the
council to review the strategy to date.
Cllr MacLochlainn said: “This meeting reviewed the
immediate response to the tragic events and what had
been achieved.
“The Buncrana Community Combating Suicide (BCCS)
group had set up drop in centres and mounted a
leafleting campaign informing people of what
services were available, especially aimed at young
people.
“There was also a Facebook site aimed at informing
people what they could avail of and as far as I am
aware they had more than 1,200 hits. People could
also download the leaflet from this site.
“A phoneline has also been established that will be
available on a 24-hour basis for some time to come.
So in terms of the immediate response a lot has been
achieved.” |
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Cllr MacLochlainn
continued: “In terms of a long term response this
meeting was very encouraging. The three key figures
in all of this are the HSE, BCCS and the Inishowen
Development Partnership and they are going to work
together to develop a plan to move forward.
“As regards counselling for the bereaved families
and members of the emergency services if the HSE
cannot deliver they will look at could BCCS offer
something obviously with a degree of support.
“The whole idea is to ensure that there is a joined
up approach to the needs of the people following
this terrible tragedy.”
Senior HSE manager John Hayes moved to dispel
reports that there could be long delays in people
receiving counselling after the tragedy. He said:
“We intend to fast-track any referrals to the HSE
where people are in need of support. There will be
no delays in getting counselling to those who
require it and while there are different needs we
will attempt to resolve them.”
Cllr MacLochlainn also said that the second aspect
of this week’s meeting was to look at the road
safety implications of the tragedy.
He said: “The council’s main responsibility in this
is to look at the road safety aspect and see what
lessons there are to be learned.
“For some time we have had a road safety working
group and they were concentrating on education and
having some success.
“Until this terrible tragedy road deaths figures
were falling in this area.”
The Mayor added that Gardaí believed that Inishowen
had enough Garda resources to deal with the road
safety aspect but that the county as a whole may
need greater resources.
He said: “The Gardaí indicated they were happy
enough with resources in this part of the county but
that the question of the county as a whole needed to
be addressed and this will be brought up with the
relevant authorities.”
He concluded: “Overall I am encouraged by what has
been achieved to date and happy that we seem to have
a joined up approach to the needs of this area by
all the agencies involved.
“There will be a further follow up meeting in
September when we will look at what else needs to be
done.”
*The HSE counselling helpline for people affected by
the fatal road traffic collision is: 087 2798412. |
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