Mary Butler TD for Mental Health and Older People, who officially opened the café in August 2021, spoke about Galway Community Café at the Oireachtas Sub Committee meeting on Mental Health saying;
“I would like to speak a little about crisis cafés, or community cafés as I prefer to call them. I travelled to Galway recently to officially open a community café. It is located immediately across from University Hospital Galway, run by people with lived experience – peer workers… In some instances that intervention might mean a person may not have to go to the emergency department at all, but it also means that they are getting the necessary support… Out-of-hours is the time people feel most vulnerable: in the evening after 8 p.m. or 9 p.m. or at weekends, when they do not have access to some supports to which they have otherwise have access during the week… I would love to see it being rolled out across the country. It is a fantastic initiative.”
We appreciate the support from Minister Butler in sharing the work which we do here at the café.
Tuesday, September 14th 2021 – Oireachtas Sub Committee meeting on Mental Health.
