ABOUT US
Chairperson of Xchange Outreach Portadown
Dr. Arthur Cassidy, B.Sc, B.Sc, Ph.D, C.Psych, AFBPsS
I have lived all my life here in Portadown and am responsible for the ongoing work of suicide prevention intervention, education and training of my team and the overall development of our work especially with young people and to some extent with older adults. My education and training began at undergraduate level where I took an honours degree in Sociology followed by an Honours degree in Experimental Social Psychology where I began early research into developmental changes in brain neurochemistry in teenagers brains when under stress. My research interest became focussed on Self perceived competence in adolescents personality structure and its relationship to young peoples identity and self harm by alcohol and drug abuse. My post doctoral research is into the attributions made by teenage adolescents about helplessness and hopelessness and associated depression. I am interested in the relation between alcohol and completed suicides and the effects of drugs on suicidal thinking patterns.
I am an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, a member of the Irish Association of Suicidology and a member of the International Association of Suicide Prevention.
What we do
My team operate an outdoor mobile unit which is based at the bridge beside the River Bann every Saturday night in Portadown all year round, where people of all ages now come for tea coffee biscuits and receive a listening and sympathetic ear to a wide range of issues that cause them deep anxiety and personal conflicts and where many issues are resolved and where they also receive emotional support through their crises.No matter how small or how large your problem is, we are here to listen and befriend you, in strict trust and confidence.