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Galway Community Café isn’t your ordinary café. While your standard café might serve macchiatos, flat whites and all sorts of tea variations, Galway Community Café provides quite a different service. We are a free, adult out-of-hours mental health service. We provide a space for individuals to come and chat in a safe, non-judgmental and confidential environment. Our staff have experienced the ups, downs and everything in between on their own mental health journeys and they are available to sit and chat on a peer-to-peer basis with others who may be on their own mental health journey.

Whether you are feeling a little out of whack, really struggling, or you are doing well and want to share this with someone, our staff are available to chat! We wanted to outline some of the commonly asked questions we get, and hopefully this can help you understand our service a bit better!

How does it work?

There are three ways you can chat with a member of our team; in person, by phone call or by video call. When you chat with a member of our team, it is your space to talk about how you are feeling, what might be going on in your mind, maybe you are looking for some information! Our team will chat with you and try to support you as best as possible. It is important to know that we are not trained psychologists, clinical staff or doctors. We are just like you, people who have our own lived experiences of mental health journeys.

The café is open Thursdays to Sundays, from 6.30pm to 11.30pm (with the last bookable timeslot being 11pm). Due to Public Health Guidelines, individuals have to book a time to chat with us.

We are based in Mr. Waffle on Newcastle Rd, across from UCHG and beside Tesco!

How do I schedule a time to chat?

The easiest way to schedule a time to chat is to visit our website www.galwaycommunitycafe.ie where you can choose a timeslot that suits you, and let us know what format you want; in person, by phone or a video call!

When you book the timeslot, you will get an email confirmation and some information about your chosen format for chatting with us. If you chose in person, it gives you directions to our location in case you don’t know where we are! If you chose phone call, it lets you know that a member of staff will call you at your requested timeslot! If you chose video call, you will find a link to our secure, confidential video call platform, as well as some information about the platform.

If you don’t have access to the internet, you can also make an appointment by calling the café on 087-1085134 and staff can book you in on the system.

Do we keep notes or keep a record of the conversations?

We don’t keep notes about what you want to talk about with the team. Your conversation is confidential and safe for you. We do not share information with community mental health teams or other HSE mental health services.

The only time we may share information and break your confidentiality is if there is a real and imminent concern for the welfare of you or another individual. We are bound by law and have a duty of care to help maintain the safety of individuals.

When you arrive, there is a Covid-19 health declaration which we must complete with you due to Public Health Guidelines, and we have to keep these forms incase of a need for contact tracing.

Is it confidential?

Your conversation is confidential with us. There are some instances in where we are legally obligated to share information or break confidentiality. These are

  • Where a staff member becomes aware that you may be a serious risk to yourself and/or others
  • When an individual discloses information about current or past child abuse
  • Galway Community Café and its employees are bound to follow any order by a court of law e.g. information on a crime, witness statements, etc.

When confidentiality must be broken for any of these reasons, staff will endeavor to ensure you are aware that we will have to break confidentiality and only essential or necessary and relevant information will be shared. Our Confidentiality statement can be read in full here

 

The team are here for you to chat, be sure to link in with us!

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