Charity
Social Influencer Louise Cooney promotes Pieta’s new listening initiative
Social Influencer Louise Cooney is using her huge online profile to encourage people to seek help if they are struggling to cope during the pandemic with Pieta House. Picture: Sean Curtin/True Media
Social Influencer Louise Cooney promotes Pieta’s new listening initiative
By I Love Limerick correspondent Mary Caroline McCarthy
Fashion blogger Louise Cooney, Kieran O Brien, National Events Manager at Pieta House and Patrice Cooney, Louise’s Aunt, pictured at Pieta House as they present the cheque of €90,000 to the charity.
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Louise Cooney, from Dooradoyle, who has 210k followers on Instagram and is an ambassador for Pieta, says there isn’t one person who isn’t feeling the knock-on effect of the pandemic in one form or another in terms of their mental health.
Covid-19 has had a large effect on all of us and even for Louise, it has resulted in her having to pack up her new life and belongings and move home saying goodbye to the new life she was enjoying in New York. She speaks very honestly on her Instagram account about the ups and downs she is experiencing because of the pandemic.
She is using her huge online profile to encourage people to seek help from Pieta House if they are struggling to cope during the pandemic.
Pieta House provides a professional one-to-one therapeutic service to people who are in suicidal distress and those who are bereaved by suicide. All their services are provided free of charge and no referral is needed. Social Influencer Louise Cooney
Pieta themselves are improving their extensive services to help people with mental health difficulties during the pandemic. Pieta’s emergency helpline has seen a rise in calls daily since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in March. On World Mental Health Day, Pieta released a new free video counselling service for people who were struggling with their mental health and couldn’t get the help they need because of the pandemic.
Louise pictured at the Pieta House Darkness into Light Walk in 2019 with her parents Tony and Grainne and her dog Cooper.
Louise has worked closely with Pieta House over the course of the last year. In May of 2020, Louise raised €90,000 in honour of her cousin Nicky for Pieta House. After the loss of her cousin Nicky to suicide, Louise has been persistent in her quest to support Pieta House and inform the public of the importance of their services.
Louise tells us, “I was doing a lot of work with them earlier this year to raise money because they haven’t had their fundraisers. So now they’ve just launched a video counselling service which is amazing. You can do it from anywhere, and it’s available to everybody and it’s free. They also have phone counselling and text counselling. I suppose, you know, with the nature of the pandemic people are kind of afraid to go in to meet with people one on one and also a lot of their centres are closed, because they’re locked in. So, this is a way for them to kind of reach people they wouldn’t be able to reach normally.”
“Even when we spoke back in April about people’s mental health during this pandemic I think at that point we had probably more hope than we have now. A lot of people are suffering for a long time, and people have lost jobs, and family members. Our whole lives have changed so being adaptable to the current climate and looking after mental health is really important to being able to talk. I know sometimes people are afraid to be a burden on their family and friends so having this service where you can talk to somebody who’s totally unbiased and it’s done wherever you feel comfortable, you can do it at home or you can do it in your car. This new service from Pieta is a great option to have now.”
Pieta provides 24/7 support–if you are suicidal, self-harming, or bereaved you can contact Pieta 24/7 via the Freephone crisis helpline on 1800 247 247, or text HELP to 51444 (standard message rates apply). Free video counselling will be offered depending on the needs of the client and the following discussions between the client and the Pieta clinical support team.
For more on Pieta House, go HERE
For more stories on Louise Cooney, go HERE
