Ciarán Carey Counselling Services (Ex Limerick Hurler) and some of his colleagues provided a talk to our U17 panel in relation to mental health, social media use, alcohol and drug misuse.

Ciarán Carey (social media use, alcohol mis-use) provided the talk along with Ann Reidy (Prescription medication mis-use) and George Henderson (Former drug user / dealer. Hard drugs mis-use).

All counsellors as recovering addicts themselves provided an insight into the 'lived experience' of addiction and strategies for increasing the awareness of manipulation and coercion to use drugs.

The overall message was that a strong focus on positive mental health enables people to avoid falling into the pitfalls of addiction.

U17 coaching staff encouraged all players from the U17 panel to be in attendance. As requested by Ciarán, for maximum impact, he also requested at least one parent / guardian was in attendance on the night of the event.

We would hope that the lads took a lot from this event and hope that it will aid them in making informed decisions in life as they enter a critical stage when moving from boys to men.

For further info on Ciarán Carey Counselling Services, see link below to his website. Also link to his Instagram page.