Damien McHugh from Beál Cú O’Raghallaigh club is the County Fermanagh Health and Wellbeing Officer. Damien moved to Fermanagh in 2002 and has been involved with his local club in the capacity of first aider for the senior team and as the Healthy Club Officer. He Joined the Fermanagh County Health and Wellbeing Committee in 2014 taking over as Chair in 2015.
As Chair of the county Health and wellbeing committee he was worked with the committee over the past 3 years promoting health and wellbeing throughout the clubs in the county from arranging a mental health conference to organising social initiative trips to Croke Park as well as providing training and support to healthy club officers in the county. They have also developed a county Critical Incident Response Plan and have encouraged clubs to do the same. Recently they have had great success in rolling out a “want to stop smoking” campaign at Brewster Park during the USFC quarter final against Armagh. During this day they worked with the Public Health Authority as well as the Western and Southern trust to provide information and assistance to encourage people to think about stopping smoking. Damien would love to see all clubs in Fermanagh become smoke free grounds following the example of Derrygonnelly Harps and Erne Gaels.
He says that “volunteering with Fermanagh GAA has given him a great sense of pride to see how health and wellbeing has become an integral part of Fermanagh GAA and is grateful to the county Board who have been excellent in supporting him and the committee in fulfilling this role.
Volunteering for the GAA both at club level and county level has given him the chance to influence health and wellbeing of our members and to see the fantastic work being carried out by the healthy club officers around the county and to highlight this at provincial and national level. He is proud of the fact that Fermanagh are the first county to have all clubs appoint a Healthy Club Officer.
Over the next year the committee will be working on campaigns around the five steps to wellbeing during the county senior and intermediate football championships, gambling awareness, and promoting health and wellbeing in Fermanagh through campaigns and the use of social media and the health and wellbeing page on the county website where they will highlight the work being done by clubs in Fermanagh.
Damien is grateful for the support that the county health and wellbeing committee and the Fermanagh County board as well as the support he gets from provincial and national level and looks forward to many years of volunteering in the future.
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