READ THIS BEFORE POSTING - THE RULES & CHARTER (and handy links)

This isn't a medical forum. Any medical problems really should be discussed with your GP.
There are a wide range of supports and services that can help in a crisis, including:

The local GP or family doctor.
GP out-of-hours co-operative services
Accident and emergency departments of general hospitals

• STD tests - List of clinics available on http://www.hivireland.ie/home.html Free STD tests are available from the clinic at St James's Hospital, tel: 014162315/01-4162316 for more information.
  
• Main Known Modes of HIV Transmission
  
  http://www.hivaidscare.com/hivtransmission.php?acode=na
  
  
• Alcoholics anonymous - www.alcoholicsanonymous.ie
  
• Bodywise - http://www.bodywhys.ie Phone:01 283 5126. For help on many subjects including Bulemia and anorexia.info@bodywhys.ie
  alex@bodywhys.ie (Support) Lo Call 1890 200 444
  (see website or call the office for Helpline opening hours)
  
  
• Drugs first aid (boards.ie does not condone the use of illegal drugs but wishes to provide this link to improve knowledge on how to spot overdose/problems when one may be under the influence) http://www.urban75.com/Drugs/drugfirst.html
  
• Giving up Cannabis http://www.edas.org.au/docs/cannabis.pdf[/b]
  
• Also VHI medical advice online. Handy thing about the VHI site is, if you're a member, and have your member number (or whatever they like to call it there), you can also e-mail in queries to the "nurse", for general advice: www.vhihealthe.com or phone 1850 247724
  
• Dublin Rape Crisis Centre http://www.drcc.ie/ Freephone 1800 788 888
  They deal with all forms of sexual assault and related issues, not just rape.
  
• One in Four http://www.oneinfour.org/ [/b] 01 662 4070
  This group for survivors of sexual abuse is best known for their advocacy work, but also provide help and advice.
  
  
• www.irishhealth.com - It's an independent medical site run by a number of Irish doctors. There are quite a few articles on health matters, the facility to ask a medical question and a weekly newsletter. (requires log-in)
  
• The Diabetes Federation Of Ireland website at http://www.diabetes.ie. It will provide you with help, information etc. on diabetes.
  
• Lose weight! or gain weight? http://www.ivillage.co.uk/dietandfitness/wtmngment/0,10276,,00.html gives good advice.
  
• The Irish Council for Psychotherapy offers information on those wishing to know about Psychotherapy and using the services of a Psychotherapist. http://www.psychotherapy-ireland.com/
  Go here for a directory fo Psychotherapists around Ireland.
  
• The Breast Cancer site is having trouble getting enough people to click on it daily to meet their quota of donating at least one free mammogram a day to an underprivileged woman. www.thebreastcancersite.com
  It takes less than a minute to go to their site and click on "donating a mammogram" for free (pink window in the middle). This doesn't cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate mammogram in exchange for advertising.

• Prevention of cruelty to children services including Childline
  http://www.ispcc.ie/
  http://www.ispcc.ie/Children/ISPCC.aspx?Page=Services
  http://www.childline.ie/
  
  
• The Irish Family Planning Association can help you with any family planning advice you may need http://www.ifpa.ie/
  Click here for a link to their agencies around Ireland http://www.ifpa.ie/about/centres.html
  Unexpected pregnancy? Cura is there for help http://www.cura.ie/
  
• http://www.plannedparenthood.org/bc/index.html "Planned Parenthood believes in the fundamental right of each individual, throughout the world, to manage his or her fertility."
  
• http://www.treoir.ie/ The NationalFederation of Services for Unmarried Parents and their Children.
  
• If you are pregnant and wish advice on your pregnancy goto Euomom http://www.eumom.com/ie/welcome.asp It gives a very good array of information. In fact, if you subscribe you have access to similar discussion forums for women at your stage of pregnancy.
  
• Gingerbread provides aid and support groups to help people come to terms with the new realities brought about by parenting largely on their own. http://www.gingerbread.ie/
  
• Residential Institutions Redress Board. This deals with the redress of children who have been abused in school or institutions under state regulation. http://www.rirb.ie/
  
• Paternity testing? http://www.cellmark.co.uk/

Birth Control

• General information link http://www.fwhc.org/birth-control/ This contains a list of Birth control methods and has some info on each. This is given only for reference. You must be advised by your doctor before you make a final decision on the specific birth control method for your specific body.
• The Wellwoman Centre http://www.wellwomancentre.ie/medical.html This is a Dublin based centre. The site provides info on pricing, counselling and even advice for Men. http://www.wellwomancentre.ie/menshealth.html

Adoption: Adopted and looking for a Birth Parent?

• www.adoptionireland.com
• www.adoptionforums.com

• The Samaritans are a well trained group of volunteers available to talk to youabout any problems or life grievances you wish to talk about. www.samaritans.org or email jo@samaritans.org to get trained samaritan help via email. Alternatively dial 1850-609090 to speak in privacy and confidentiality. This is a link showing local samaritans in Ireland
  http://www.samaritans.org/talk_to_someone/find_my_local_branch/ireland.aspx
  
  
• Oasis is a site set up by the eGovernment initiative to deal with a number of social issues ranging from divorce, adoption, noise regulations to consumer advice, employee rights and moving to Ireland. http://www.oasis.gov.ie/ Check it out, it’s a fount of knowledge.
  
• The Citizens Information Database is an electronic database produced by Comhairle which covers all aspects of civil and social rights and entitlements in Ireland. It was developed as a common resource for all information providers in the independent and statutory sectors. http://www.cidb.ie
  
• Focus Ireland deals with homelessness http://www.focusireland.ie/
  See also Threshold http://www.threshold.ie/ for advice and help concentrated on more general housing issues.
  
• Don't know how to do something? anything at all? Well these people seem to know it all... http://www.tellmehowto.net

• http://www.irish-counselling.ie/ Irish association of counselling and therapy
• http://www.mdf.org.uk
• http://www.depressionalliance.org
• http://www.aware.ie The Aware loCall Helpline 1890 303 302
• http://www.theblackdog.net
• http://www.mentalhealthireland.ie/
• Schizophrenia Ireland: Helpline 01 8601620, 1890 621 631 (Monday-Friday, 9am-4pm) www.sirl.ieinfo@sirl.ie
• http://www.psihq.ie/find_psychologist.asp : If you are looking for a psycholigist
  

Depression help:

• Grow
  http://www.grow.ie/
  If you would like information on GROW or the location of your nearest GROW group, please do not hesitate to email us (info@grow.ie) or contact our National Information Line (1890 474 474).
  
• Pieta House
  http://www.pieta.ie/
  Pieta House is open 9.00 - 17.00 Mon - Fri. (01) 601 00 00

Depression fora:

• http://www.depressionforums.org/
• http://www.trappedminds.org....empty page
• The national Office for suicide prevention:http://www.nosp.ie/html/help.html

Providing support to those bereaved by suicide.

Console
Helpline: 01-8574300 , 1800 201 890 www.console.ie info@console.ie

Living Links
Phone: 087-9693021 www.livinglinks.ie

General support links to many groups:

• http://www.ipu.ie/Public/PubLinks/PatientSupport03.htm
• http://www.imd.ie/suppindx.htm

Listening services

• http://www.niteline.ie/ Aimed at third-level students. 1800 32 32 42
  
• http://www.niteline.tcd.ie/ Aimed at third-level students in UCD, RCSI, NCAD and Trinity 1800 793 793

Stammering:

• http://www.stammeringireland.ie/
• http://www.hsenorthernarea.ie/news/article.php?id=70
• www.mcguireprogramme.com
• www.stammering.ie

Marriage & Relationship Counselling Services
http://www.mrcs.ie/


Domestic Abuse:

womensaid.ie
hse.ie
National Network of Womens Refuge
For Men



Thanks sceptre, Victor, Rufus T Firefly, smccarrick, Saruman, koneko, Thaed, Ruu, Kali, dahamsta, Unreg123, Minesajackdaniels, Winters, qwertypheobia, Shewhomustbe... and Saint Something

<< Fio >> & SheroN & Gordon & Beruthiel

Also please note that even if you are registered with an account on boards.ie you may have to wait to be validated to post here. I will explain why and how you can stop this from happening forthwith toute suite etc etc

If you have not logged in and you decide to go to a thread and reply to the thread you will be asked to log in. If you do this then your post will get put into "wait for validation" mode. Therefore to stop this you will have to post after you have logged in. Sorry, it may cause you hassle but otherwise you'll have to wait until it gets validated by us lowly mods.

We are waiting for an admin solution to this but as we all know - admins are even lowlier than mods therefore they don't really do much around here but scrape up the cash from the bottom of the lift shafts. You know the deal.

Anyway, please log in before you post and everyone will be happy. Unless you are posting because you are not happy which is normally the case on this board of personal issues. If this is the case, I am sorry, hopefully you will find an answer here. But after you log in remember.... oh of course, unless you are unregistered.

!

http://www.emigrantadvice.ie

Handy link for returning Irish emigrants who are iin a vulnerable situation.

Just thought I'd pop up some of the links I've found good, as well as those I can see as being useful for people. Hopefully these might prove to be useful to the curious and those who suffer depression alike.

http://www.theblackdog.net

It's mentioned in the charter, but I thought I'd talk a bit about it here. Very good articles on depression, it focusses mostly on depression in Irish males, but is not restricted to that. It deals with a variety of issues that effect people who suffer from depression in Ireland, such as weight gain, how to help a friend/family member with depression and other useful and interesting articles.

http://my.webmd.com/content/tools/1/quiz_depression.htm?z=3628_81000_0000_12_01

This link is to a good depression screening test. If you are worried you might have depression, or are just curious this test might help you make that decision to go see your GP about the issue.

http://depression.webmd.com

A useful collection of articles and advise here, with good short pieces on advice for newly diagnosed people, depression in different age groups and some information for parents on children with depression.

http://depressionfallout.com/

A fantastic site for people who have someone close to them suffering from depression. It has some excellent articles on how depression effects relationships and the best means to support a loved one who has depression.

http://depression.about.com/od/drugdatabases/

Some useful links to drug databases and the like, allowing you to get more information on the drugs you have been prescribed. Some of the sites include alot of information on possible side effects and things to avoid when on the drugs, useful information to have imo.

http://www.icpty.ie/

The Irish Council for Psychotherapy Website. This should prove very useful for anyone who's thinking about going to therapy. It has good descriptions of the main approaches used so you can judge which would interest you before you attend and pay for therapy. It also has a full directory with addresses and contact numbers of psychotherapists in Ireland, which is very useful if you are looking to find a therapist in your area.

http://www.maledepression.com

Another site focussing on depression and mood disorders in men. This time its from an American stand point though. The articles on it are an interesting read.


I hope the above links can be useful to people who have mentioned depression recently on this board. There is plenty information there for anyone who's interested in knowing more too


I felt that this thread would more constructive than me deciding to rant about depression and the misconceptions about it in Ireland that I was planning on writing originally. See I'm channeling my energy in a semi-constructive fashion.

There are alot of other good sites out there, you can find links to them on most of the sites I recommended. I'm just too tired to go through all of them. Please add any good sites you've found to the list. I'm very interested in finding more information Oh and if you can't find the exact site you want from the above short list, remember google is your friend...

As a suggestion: can we include a ban on 'txt spk' into the charter?

Threads can and will be locked when they degrade into bickering, mass quoting, abuse and / or after "a certain time". Denigtating users, or their problems, being inappropriately judgemental, thread hogging, post tennis, using PI as a soap opera and demanding updates or other disruptive or non-constructive behaviours are not acceptable.

Posters are requested to leave fonts at the default settings unless there is a specific reason to change, e.g. for emphasis. Changing font, font size, colour, boldness, etc. makes it difficult for some users to read posts.

As some of you may know, there is a new forum Sex and Sexuality that is only available to subscribers and moderators. (to subscribe check this thread for details)

As has always been the case with PI, this forum is not for freeflowing discussion of general sexual topics, just as it is not for any other topics that are not of one's Personal Issues. As always, topics of a sexual nature that are concerning ones personal well being are welcome on PI. By that I mean;

A topic asking for advice on how to broach the subject of an*l sex with ones girlfriend would be welcome on PI.
A topic looking for peoples experiences with an*l sex is a discussion, and hence would be better off in S&S.

Please read the Sex and Sexuality forum charter (in particular section 9) to get an understanding of what defines the forum from the PI forum. Threads will be moved at the PI mod's discretion, however, due to the fact that unregistered posting is not possible on S&S forum, we will try to reserve the right of the Unregistered poster's access to PI. Unfortunately, however, if the topic is more of a discussion than PI can allow; the thread will be moved and unregistered users will not be able to access the thread.

Twice now I've seen 'dragging up old threads is a no-no' on this forum, and once a threat to ban someone if they do it again. Maybe include that rule in the charter? It's not obvious to me that one shouldn't do it: some might think it would be good to keep same issues on same thread. (No, I am not the dragger up).

Coroner and Inquest Frequently Asked Questions

This sites is run by my cousin, covers all topics relating to health and life/personal issues ,especially for youth
http://www.spunout.ie