‘Butterfly Tales’ book helping to tackle mental health obstacles

‘Butterfly TALES’', a collection of stories highlighting mental health obstacles and ways to overcome them, was launched by students of the Fresh Start Programme last week.

The Fresh Start programme is a part of the NLN (National Learning Network) and the course is designed to support students in a positive and inclusive environment.

Over the last several months, the Fresh Start group in Navan has been working towards earning the Amber Flag – an initiative created by Pieta House to help raise awareness for mental health.

Fresh Start Instructor Lisa Lenihan explained that to complete this initiative, participating groups must set out and complete a minimum of three goals surrounding promoting positive mental health.

One of the goals the group set out to complete was to write a book that would highlight different mental health obstacles, as well as coping techniques to help overcome these obstacles. The book itself tells the story of four characters with Autism, ADHD, Social Anxiety and Depression.

Leo Murray, one of the main authors of the book explained: “There is such a wide spectrum of mental health obstacles and it’s impossible to show them all, so we decided to write about ones we had experience with to enable a deeper and more accurate reading experience.

Another goal the group set was to host a launch day to promote the book to local support groups. The event included a reading from the book, which told the story of a Grasshopper mouse named Derek who is autistic and experiences sensory overload and uses the grounding method to help him overcome this. There were also demonstrations of the other coping techniques used in the book and a guided meditation to end the session.

Alongside the book, the students also made 3D prints of the characters which were made in to keyrings and come with pocket-sized cards of the coping techniques that the characters use to help overcome their own unique obstacles.

The launch was a great success with representatives from many local organisations such as Meath Partnership, SOSAD, Jigsaw, Core Ireland and the Samaritans. Guests also included local councillors Emer Tóibín and Padraig Fitzsimons.

The Fresh Start Group in Navan doesn’t plan to stop there. Kayley Dunne said: “Our aim now is to continue to try and get our book out there and to reach as many people as possible. We’re excited to see where it goes.”