RTÉ Television and radio personality, Ryan Tubridy today officially launched a new student mental health web portal at NUI Galway. My Mind Matters (MMM) www.mymindmatters.ie is a student website which provides information, help, support and advice to college students around a range of topics that can affect mental health and well-being, such as anxiety, depression, exam stress and coping with the transition to college life. In some colleges, students can also apply for confidential online one-to-one counselling and other interactive supports. This new initiative is led by NUI Galway, in partnership with Trinity College Dublin, University College Cork and Dundalk IT, and has attracted €1 million investment from government and college funds. This collaborative project from the four colleges will provide interactive, anonymous and confidential help and support for students. In the development of the project and to source quality mental health information, the colleges partnered with www.ReachOut.com, an online service that inspires young people to help themselves through tough times. The My Mind Matters website is the result of a Mental Health Portal Project in which students were central to making decisions about the type of service they wanted and needed. Focus groups of students were held in the four participating colleges to decide on the design of the site which included colours, font styles, images, interactive features, navigation and layout. There will be an ongoing feedback facility within the site to ensure that it continually caters for the needs of students. It is hoped that the web portal will become a national widely availed of service. Professor Nollaig Mac Congáil, Registrar and Deputy-President of NUI Galway says: "Our University is not concerned solely with the academic aspect of our students' lives but with their physical and mental well-being also. We are therefore particularly delighted to welcome this new and collaborative mental health support website which will provide a very valuable and confidential service to students." Ms. Bea Gavin, Head of Student Counselling in NUI Galway says," My Mind Matters is an online resource for an online population. These are tough times for students and their families. Extra stress is reflected in constantly increasing demand for reliable information and counselling. We hope that young men, in particular, who have sometimes been slow to seek help in the past, will turn to this exciting new facility." For further information please contact: Bea Gavin on 091 492427 or email bea.gavin@nuigalway.ie Log onto www.mymindmatters.ie ENDS