‘Still Imprisoned Project’ – working with republican ex-prisoners

g BY PEADAR WHELAN

“THE ‘Still Imprisoned Project’ is carrying out really important work and catering for the needs of republican former prisoners and their families,” Joe Austin has told An Phoblacht.
Austin, a founding member of the ‘Still Imprisoned Project’ (SIP) was speaking to An Phoblacht after a conference in Belfast which outlined the breadth of work that is carried out by the project’s volunteers.
“The project has three tiers,” Austin explains. “We have a confidential helpline  staffed by our outreach team on a 24 hours a day, 7 days a week basis, with a guaranteed response time of 1 hour.
“The criteria for the outreach team is two-fold.
“Firstly, that they must have a history of alcohol, drug or gambling abuse themselves, and they must be addiction free for at least one year.”
“Secondly, they must be republicans. This is because we are still dealing with the legacy of the past and the negative experiences that republicans have of the state and its agencies overlaps into this area of work we are in. Republicans still distrust state agencies.”
Eibhlin Glenholmes, who is the SIP Project Co-ordinator, also spoke to An Phoblacht about the project.
She explained that the next tier is that of the “professionals”.
“We have a network of people, psychiatrists, psychologists, counsellors and other mental health workers who will respond to a request to see someone within eight hours after the referral from the outreach team.
“Compare this to the health service waiting list that means someone in stress will only be seen after a six-week wait.”
The third tier is another innovative creation of the Project, the ‘Befrienders’ or ‘Comrade Circle’ whereby ordinary men and women help by breaking down the barriers, real or imaginary, which isolate people in recovery. “Their role,” says Austin, “is to ease the loneliness and the guilt which people on the road to recovery face.”
“Again,” Eibhlin Glenholmes re-emphasises, “because of the experience that republicans have of the state agencies, and the deep mistrust that many republican former political prisoners still hold of any statutory body, it is of vital importance that the people we are trying to help feel confident that they are not being judged, nor labelled.
“Many of these people made extraordinary sacrifices for their community when we needed them. It is only right that their community stands by them when they need us.”
Both Eibhlin Glenholmes and Joe Austin agree that one of the main obstacles the Still Imprisoned Project had to overcome was the difficulty in persuading former political prisoners to recognise that it isn’t a weakness nor a failure to seek and receive help for psychiatric illnesses.
“People go to their doctor to be treated for physical illnesses,” Joe Austin says, “so why not recognise that psychiatric illnesses need to be healed and that people can seek help and get it.”

• To contact the Still Imprisoned Project call the 24-hour helpline 0759 8875 152 or call Tar Anall 028 90 323 631.