THE Whiterock Children’s Centre has expressed their shock and delight at being awarded funding from the Department of Health as part of the Mental Health Support Fund. The centre has been awarded £89,000 to employ a play therapist and introduce counselling to the centre. It is one of four West Belfast-based organisations to receive money from the fund with Falls Road based Suicide Awareness and Support Group set to receive £92,530 for a holistic Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Programme, while Lenadoon Community Forum is receiving £88,850 to help increase capacity for self-referrals. Kids Together West Belfast, based on the Stewartstown Road is receiving £85,000 for its Jigsaw mental health progamme. Speaking of her delight at being awarded the funding, Dierdre Walsh, Centre director said that she couldn’t believe it when she got the letter to tell her that their application had been successful. “We were told that the fund was massively oversubscribed and we were unlikely to receive the money so you can imagine my shock when I received the letter at the weekend,” she said. “The funding will allow us to employ a play therapist on a ten hour contract and also to introduce counselling services to the centre for children referred through the family support service. “Some of the children using our services have anxiety, they are worried about things like illness and now we even have children coming to us and telling us that they are worried about what is going on with the war in Europe.” The awards have been made following an additional allocation of £6.02m to the Mental Health Support Fund which is providing grants to a range of charities and groups across the North of Ireland.