About Helplink

Mission: Helplink Mental Health’s mission is to provide accessible, free or low cost mental health services; locally, nationally and internationally, 7 days a week and out–of–hours.

The three types of mental health services that Helplink provides are: Counselling, Information Provision and Education.

Counselling Services

(National, Local and International)

Helplink Mental Health’s mission is to provide accessible, free or low cost mental health services; locally, nationally and internationally, 7 days a week and out–of–hours.

The three types of mental health services that Helplink provides are: Counselling, Information Provision and Education.

National Counselling Services

General Counselling
Couples Counselling
Youth Counselling (including addiction)
Addiction Counselling
Bereavement Therapy
Student Mentoring/Counselling Services

Employee Counselling Service: we provide a national staff (EAP) counselling service that is available 7 days a week; nationwide. This is a pay-as-you-go service; which is perfect for companies small, medium and large.

Gambling Addiction Counselling Service: Helplink provides a free gambling problem counselling service, nationally by phone and online (video consultations); 7 days a week and out-of-ours; funded by the Gambling Awareness Trust.

Local & International Counselling Services

Galway & Mayo: locally we provide the above suite of counselling services and also Play or Art Therapy; face-to-face.

Tusla Commissioned Services: we have been providing counselling services to TUSLA cleints (Galway region) since 2017. Helplink provides the following counselling services to clients over 18 referred to us by Tusla and we also support their foster carers with these counselling services; general counselling, addiction counselling, couples counselling, bereavement counselling, anger management counselling and art therapy.

Irish Abroad & Returning Irish Counselling Service: we also have an international service where we provide our unique free, online Irish abroad counselling service for Irish citizens living abroad and returning Irish emigrants as well. This service can be availed of through self referral directly to us or through our referral partners in Irish organisations across the globe and through Crosscare Migrant Project, Safe Home Ireland and the Irish Council for Prisoners Overseas (ICPO).

Helplink’s qualified, insured and Garda vetted counsellors are available for appointments 7 days a week and out–of–hours; for free or at low set costs.

Information & Education Services

Mind Hacks is our e-learning platform that provides the following mental health and emotional wellbeing information and education services:

– Information Service: in this service we curate 100s of Videos and Podcasts (>1000 to choose from!) in our unique digital libraries around the topics of mental health & emotional wellbeing. Our libraries are free-to-use and available 24/7, with content for all ages.

Some say our libraries are the ‘Netflix’ and ‘Spotify’ of mental health content!

– Education Service: educational mental wellness and resilience building workshops for children and young people, that are continuously available for 10 months; 24/7.

– Furthermore, we provide live webinars around managing mental health, building resilience and increasing good communication to those in crisis for employees and managers.

The Helplink Show: for over three years Helplink has provided an award winning (GOLD winner for ‘Social Benefit’ at the CRAOL Community Radio Awards 2019 & Shortlisted for the Headline Mental Health media Awards 2020) radio show and podcast that was hosted live on seven local, national and international community radio stations:

Connemara FM
ROS FM (Roscommon)
CRC FM (Castlebar, Mayo)
Flirt FM (NUIG Student Radio)
ACR FM (Athlone)
CharityRadio.ie (National station)
Irish Radio Canada

Show topics – mental health, emotional wellbeing and community

Listen back on:

Our info & education platform Mindhacks.ie CLICK HERE
Our YouTube Channel CLICK HERE

Management & Administration Team

Founder/CEO

Lochlann Scott is Helplink’s CEO, he holds a degree and two post graduate diplomas in Psychology and Health Psychology. Before founding Helplink in 2012 he worked in Social Care and Social Work departments for many years in the HSE West; in residential and long-term family support. Previous to his time with the HSE he held multiple management roles in the retail and hospitality sectors. He also co-founded the Health 2.0 Galway Chapter, and was a voluntary Board Director/Trustee with Mental Health Reform (Ireland). Furthermore, Lochlann is a multi-award winner and has been shortlisted in the areas of social entrepreneurship and radio show production/presenting.

Service Delivery Manager

Laura Condon is Helplink’s Service Delivery Manager. Laura is an accredited counsellor with 7 years experience in mental health non-profit management. She holds a BA in Psychology, MA in Counselling & Psychotherapy and Level 9 Cert in Non-Profit Leadership and Management. Laura manages the service’s Counselling, Information Provision and Education services to ensure quality client experience.

Administrators

Rachael Kehoe is Helplink’s administrator. With a hospitality background, Rachael holds a Bachelor of Arts in Hotel and Catering Management from GMIT and brings with her a wealth of experience in reception and administration.

Niamh McGrenra started at Helplink as a student intern in 2020 and is now an administrator. Niamh is interested in mental health promotion and studying the constant changes in society through social media and technology.