Health

Aims

LINC is a community resource centre for lesbians and bisexual women and their families in Cork and beyond which celebrated its twentieth year of operation in 2019. The HSE provides core funding to support the work we deliver in the L&B community. Nationally, 10% of the population are estimated to be lesbian or gay and therefore, there are approximately 19,000 lesbian or gay people in the city of Cork and 48,000 in the county.

LINC aims to “improve the quality of life, health and well-being of all women who identify as lesbian or bisexual”.

This shall be achieved by:

Building a safe, accessible and vibrant community centre (actual and virtual) for lesbians and bisexual (LB) women
Providing information and support for LB women and their families
Promoting the physical, mental, emotional and sexual health of LB women
Informing and contributing to relevant policy development at local, regional and national level
Being a model of best practice rooted in feminist, social justice and community development principles

We have a strong track record of providing services in the areas of:

Mental health promotion and suicide prevention
General health and well-being; social support
Education and training and family matters

Activities

LINC runs a programme of activities which varies over the course of the year.

Target 1000 will have two strands: working with community members and working to raise awareness of LGBT issues among health practitioners.

The community strand
The community strand: “MY (Mind Yourself) Positive Health” will include workshops on:

Suicide Awareness/Prevention
Coping Skills
Emotional Intelligence (knowing how you feel, knowing how someone else feels and knowing what to do about it)
Stress Management (recognising signs of stress and knowing how to manage it)

The health practitioner strand
The health practitioner strand aims to promote awareness and understanding among mental health and other support services in Cork of the issues facing lesbian women and how a more accessible service which is appropriate to lesbian mental health needs can be provided. Women can also access subsidised counselling services through LINC.

Community Centre

LINC is open as a drop in community centre from 11-3pm Tuesday and Wednesday, 11-8pm on Thursdays and 2-4pm on Saturdays. We offer one to one support, information and advice. The centre itself offers a welcoming and homely environment in which to meet your friends for coffee, browse the library or the internet, and find information on a variety of LGBT issues and concerns. We also have a Lesbian Resource Directory which has pulled together local L&B information and also signposts on to national resources. We also deliver Awareness training to organisations and companies who would like their staff to have a greater understanding of the issues and concerns of the LGBT community.

For up to date information check out our website at www.linc.ie, or find us on Facebook. LINC, 11a White St, Cork. 021 4808600 or email info@linc.ie.

Positive Health

LINC aims to provide a community health and education programme to promote mental, emotional and sexual health awareness and understanding for lesbian and bisexual women.

This programme will take place in LINC ensuring a safe, confidential environment.

Peer Support Group

LINC provide Zoom calls for members of the community. To find out when these are on please get in touch.

All welcome. Please contact LINC

Other services