Jigsaw and M&S help over 2,000 young people in Cork

Over 2,100 therapeutic appointments have been provided to young people in Cork over the past year as a result of a partnership between retailer Marks and Spencer (M&S) and youth mental health charity Jigsaw.

In its first year, the partnership raised over €150,000, allowing Jigsaw to expand its services, reduce waiting times, and reach more young people.

Among the most significant achievements of this partnership has been the rollout of Jigsaw’s new “single session first” (SSF) model of care.

SSF offers young people a focused, one off session, which is designed to provide immediate support and strategies for their current challenge, with follow-up available if needed.

This particular approach has helped reduce the average wait times for young people seeking help from 11 weeks to eight weeks. As a result of SFF, 21% of young people were seen within four weeks, with nearly 41% having their first session within eight weeks.

The partnership has delivered over 38,000 appointments to nearly 9,000 young people nationwide, with 2,159 of these in Cork alone. It has assisted over 310,000 people online through jigsaw.ie, offering information, advice, and live chat support.

While the partnership also has helped to deliver mental health training to more than 1,685 people via corporate wellbeing programmes (including M&S staff) and also to 2,022 sports coaches through Jigsaw’s One Good Coach eLearning course.

Local Jigsaw representative in Cork, Kevin O’Connor, said: “With the support of M&S, we have offered over 2,000 therapeutic appointments to the young people of Cork in the last 12 months.

“Alongside this, we have worked together to grow awareness of our services and supports and help ensure no young person across the county feels alone and forgotten. The local M&S team here in Cork have been so supportive and we are hugely grateful for all they have done, and all we plan to do.”

David Long, store manager at M&S Cork added: “We are incredibly proud to see the difference our partnership with Jigsaw is making here in Cork. Every day, our colleagues and customers show just how much they care about supporting young people’s mental health. It’s inspiring to know that our fundraising and awareness efforts are helping more than 2,100 young people in our community access the support they need, when they need it most.”