Built a peer-support line for night-shift carers
Yasmin Farah is a qualified mental health nurse from Mogadishu who arrived in Ireland in 2021. Her recognition process took two years. During that time she worked night shifts as a healthcare assistant in two Cork nursing homes.
She noticed something her clinical training helped her name: acute isolation among overnight care workers — predominantly migrant women — during the hours between midnight and five in the morning. The work is demanding and intimate. The facilities are quiet. The workers have no peer support.
Yasmin set up a WhatsApp-based peer support channel in 2023. It started with seven people she knew personally. It now has 43 members across eleven Cork care facilities. The channel is active every night. Yasmin moderates it — sets boundaries, watches for escalation, and connects people to formal support when the conversation suggests clinical need.
She has had three conversations she describes as "critical" — situations where she believes the support she provided or arranged prevented a serious mental health episode.
Yasmin received her nursing registration in late 2023. She is now a qualified mental health nurse. The WhatsApp channel is still running. She still moderates it from her phone at 3am when her shift allows.