Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
Updated 8.47am
SCHOOL CURRICULUMS NEED A “built-in system” of mental health education, the founder of Console has said.
Paul Kelly said that Irish schools need more programmes where children are taught about, and how to handle, mental health issues.
He said that the ‘fragmented’ and ‘overstretched’ state of services means that, in some cases, children might not know who to turn to. There may also be delays in seeking professional help.
Kelly told TheJournal.ie:
Young people need to realise that it’s quite normal to face difficulties, and that, above all, there’s hope. They should always feel comfortable talking them through.
“Better education would mean we can better identify who is at risk, and to be able to ensure they can get the support they need.”
Kelly noted that in many schools, cuts have affected the role of the guidance counsellor, who previously would have acted as a point of contact for children facing issues:
“Those roles have been diminished. Cutbacks have badly affected these people on the front-line who would acted as a point-of-contact for children seeking help.”
He was speaking after the body of a 15-year-old girl was found in south Dublin yesterday. The incident is being treated by gardaí as a personal tragedy.
There has been contact between the school close to where she was found, Cabinteely Community School, and the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) in order to provide psychological services to anyone affected.
“Our sympathies go out to the whole family, the school, the parents,” Kelly said, “This can be hugely traumatising for a school community.”
Local Fianna Fáil councillor Jennifer Cuffe echoed Kelly’s call for increased support for school guidance counsellors, and said that improving services nationally needs to be made a priority.
“It’s not high on the agenda,” she said. “We have to be able to help people in difficult situations and to ensure that the stigma behind mental health is removed.”
Helplines
Samaritans 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org
Console 1800 247 247 – (suicide prevention, self-harm, bereavement)
Aware 1890 303 302 (depression anxiety)
Pieta House 01 601 0000 or email mary@pieta.ie - (suicide, self-harm, bereavement)
Teen-Line Ireland 1800 833 634 (for ages 13 to 19)
Childline 1800 66 66 66 (for under 18s)
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
My nephew friend jumped out of an apartment block window on the 23/12/2013 he was 18 years old. Nobody but the school and the teachers in the school reopened to talk to the kids on the same day and Christmas Eve. The Hse had a leaflet to give to the school.
February last year a young chap of 19 years sent his mum to Dunnes store to get him a sandwich when she return he was found hanging in her sitting room.
Suicide is the worst kid of tragedy because it involves a person killing themselves. The bad news is most people don’t know they need help or there is help, although this government has cut this back to the bone. The best help you can ask for is from a parent or Aunty or uncle , you need to tell people if you are fantastic taught about how wonderful suicide is going to be for you.
Remember 1 get to reach out and talk , the stigma of your irrational thinking and fantasy about planning your suicide has to be discussed with a rational person.
2. No matter what your troubles are they can be sorted out and life will always be fun again.
3. The doctor can give you medication to rest your racing mind full of odd thoughts.
4. Go to bed early because when our nights become our day that when these tendencies get worse over time.
5. If you like a sport or hobby focus on the good times you had doing that.
6. If you cannot sleep drink drinking chocolate , and imagine you are delivering a truck load of coal bags to different houses. This always works.
7. Think about nothing but telling a person what you are thinking.
8. I know you might be sitting in company on a train or in a queue in a shop looking at others thinking how great their lives are and your isn’t . But it can be if you reach out and say ” help me ” those are the words of most dying people facing death in tragic circumstances. Help is so close and yet your thoughts make it think it is miles away .
Get the help .
Brilliant Comment Robin. Fair play.
Poor girl! God only knows what was going through her head, thoughts are with her family and friends! RIP x
I don’t want to come across as religion bashing but always thought a class dedicated to social and mental health issues would be more beneficial to students. There is a lot of pressure to “fit in” and to be accepted, teenagers can be be quite cruel to each other in that regard. They all come from different backgrounds and diffident
*have different experiences in their upbringing that many don’t understand. Plus the pressure to perform in exams. It wasn’t till my college years I got the help that I needed. Too many suicides In this country. RIP
And what about making sure every single 16-year-old gets to do the safeTALK suicide alertness training programme in school? http://www.nosp.ie/safetalk.pdf
It is a 3.5 hour internationally recognised training programme that is currently available to anybody aged 16 or older in some other countries (like Canada) but here we have decided you have to be 18 and over to do it. It teaches you the four basic steps to recognise when somebody is having suicidal thoughts, how to speak to them about it and connect them up to suicide first aid resources. Given that young people say they would talk mostly to their friends if they were feeling down, I really do think this would save lives.
Why do we constantly throw a societal issue onto schools
because it’s the birthplace of a society. the home is too small and is often very heavily influenced sometimes negatively . Education and places of learning are vital in informing young and developing minds as they are, nowadays, the most accessible and approachable points of contacts for vulnerable young people.
Where better to learn about the most important aspects of your being than in the so called hallowed halls of education? Better to learn how to look after yourself, think critically, fill in a tax form rather than churn out somebody who expects they will walk in to a job because that’s what the system tells you will happen.
What else should schools be there ?
Well Philip, for me one reason is that young people have consistently, in every single consultation, put social and emotional learning at the TOP of their list of what they want to learn in school. In post-primary school, at that age, I feel they do have some right to say what they need and want to learn.
If other countries can do this, and get good outcomes, why not us – recent European statistics show we have the highest male youth suicide rate in Europe, and second highest female. Since it is well documented that emotional wellness and happiness are in any event important precursors to learning, it doesn’t make sense to treat children in school as if they do not have an emotional side.
I suppose to an extend the school community is loco parentis in a place where children and young people spend nearly all their waking hours. In that context, we need to be sure that the environment contributes to, and helps, their wellbeing, and that everybody they come into contact with is singing off the same hymn sheet in that respect and has a good understanding of the emotional and mental development of the young person and how to support positive mental health. If evidence-based blueprints from other countries are there, then why not use them? We already know that the countries the put social and emotional wellbeing and life skills high on their agenda do, as well, have very good results in terms of learning outcomes.
If we can spend an hour a week in schools on religion,civics, PE (physical education) then surely we can devote an hour a week to Mental health education.Be that supplying information,talks etc
My sympathy to the family who lost this 15 year old girl. Rest in Peace.
I thought there is mental health education in secondary schools. But a certain group, who are based in the flawed biomedical model, seem to have a monopoly on it. It’s not down to “chemical imbalances” and having “neurotransmitters rebalanced” with a pill. As I think of all the mother’s who have lost a son or daughter because of this lie (separately from this case).
Maybe more training for teachers to recognise the signs eg ASIST. Even if the signs are not always obvious. And for people to be kinder to each other and to watch out for each other.
Children need help in Primary school. Help with managing stress and learning how to reach out to someone if in distress. Or with issues like bereavement, breakdown of parental relationships etc
Instead of everyone going around talking about “mental illness” maybe people need to be more aware of what is really going on in people’s lives and of any trauma and distress that may be affecting them.
{Do not stop or change prescribed psychoactive drugs if on them, due to the dangers of withdrawal}
Another day, another statistic, another death of a young person who hopefully is now at rest and peace in a new and beautiful place where torment and pain will be longer.
The pain and devastation left behind for her family and friends will last forever.
Everyday the figures as a result of deaths which are caused by mental health issue and depression continue to rise and yet we continue to be a great nation of talkers. We continue to wait on the Government to put in place and lead a proper strategy to deal with this very serious problem. It needs the same respect and money and political input that was put into the Road Safety Authority in order to lower deaths on our roads , and which most people would agree has been pretty successful in the main. Politicians need to wake up smell the coffee and get off the arses which the majority of them are using to sit on the fence and stop the bullshitting and do something now in the area of mental health and depression. Tomorrow will be a day too last for some individual and some family.
May this young girl rest in peace.
Utterly disgusted. We know what to do but just need the political will to do it.
Comprehensive and lengthy guidelines for post-primary schools on how they can develop a whole school approach to promoting youth mental health and preventing suicide http://www.nosp.ie/Well_Being_PP_Schools_Guidelines.pdf were sent to all schools in January 2013 by the Department. Training was offered to schools (but only a few days I think for a few staff)…
As of a few months ago, responding to a question, the Minister said that school inspections have found that less than 40% of post-primary schools had even started the process. The problem, I would guess, is that schools lack the time, energy and resources to implement what is an extensive, whole-school approach involving every aspect of school life and the curriculum.
What is needed is for the Government to compel schools to bring in this whole-school approach and to give schools the resources and training to do it properly. It is only the evidence-based whole-school approach that is going to work – and one that involves students in doing peer mental health work with their classmates as well. School is the one place where you are likely to reach nearly all young people and these approaches definitely help young people to understand that what they are going through may be normal, and they are shown to increase help-seeking behaviour.
Finally, young people in consultations always say their first choice to talk about feeling down or suicidal would be their friends and their peer group, rather than an adult. Anybody who has a teenager will know that the school guidance counsellor may be the last person they would go to… no disrespect to those counsellors, but many young people who die tragically have likely never talked to an adult about how they are feeling. We need to be sure they can learn about mental health in school and perhaps then feel more likely to speak to an adult or know where to get youth-friendly help outside of school, but also we need to be sure that young people are themselves trained to be suicide alert and to be able to help their friends when they are down or suicidal.
Youth-friendly services like Jigsaw in every community are also what is needed. Let’s face it, many young people are not willing to use some of the services that do exist at the moment, so we badly need youth-friendly ones.
So there is much we can do, but we are sorely lacking the will and commitment of resources. Shame on us.
The girl went to Rockford Manor, not Cabinteely Community School !
@Dennis, for most young people, faith and religion is no use in dealing with mental health issues.
I say: talk to a real person about your problems, not a made-up person.
Hi Julie,
The article refers to where the girl was found, not to where she went to school.
Thanks
Sinéad
Prayer? Trust me as someone who has suffered nearly all his life prayer does nothing for you. During the depths of hell, do you not think i prayed and prayed just to feel normal? It did NOTHING.
I apologise Sinead, I did not read the article correctly.
The mission of the Department of Education and Science is to provide for high quality
education, which will:
•Enable individuals to achieve their full potential and to participate fully as members
of society, and
•Contribute to Ireland’s Social, Cultural and Economic Development
Achieving potential is dependant on numerous factors,inclusive of mental health wellbeing aswell as all the other
subjects on the curriculum.
So heart breaking. May she rest in peace. Prayers for her and the family.
Mental health education in schools is not a panacea. Mental health is not a result of lack of information about mental illness. It is much more complicated than that, yet the default reaction to stories like this one seems to be “just put this stuff [what suff exactly?] on the curriculum.”. In particular Paul Kelly’s assertion that limitations in the mental health services necessitate a greater focus on mental health in schools needs to be challenged. Healthcare and the education system are two different things. Shortfalls in one cannot be compensated for by changes in the other
.
I have written here, http://stepstowardsthemountain.blogspot.ie/2014/04/we-need-to-talk-about-mental-health.html and here http://stepstowardsthemountain.blogspot.ie/2014/09/side-effects.html , why I think mental health education should be approached with care. Schools care about the welfare of their students but their business is education, not psychotherapy, psychiatry or social work.
My comment should have read where pain and suffering will be no longer.
( apologies)
Every secondary school in the country is obliged to teach social personal health education (sphe) in each year to all of its students ( first to sixth year ) for a minimum of 35 minutes per week . Schools have care teams dedicated to monitoring the vulnerable . Relationship and sexuality education is taught in each year . They explore issues of self worth , mental health and physical well being in a non judgemental , non denominational way . These programmes are obligatory , well organised and valued . Schools have changed , curriculums have broadened and to suggest nothing is being done is simply incorrect and unhelpful .
In that case,why not scrap sex education and PE. Lack of info can most certainly exacerbate mental health issues. “Reach full potential” as defined by dept, and receiving education is dependant on minds capable of receiving what is being taught and a healthy mental health is prerequisite for that. whether info should be received at home is another matter.its not about teachers being therapists- but being able to point to the trained professionals. What possible harm could come from providing this mental health education? What could be wrong with it? Its not the total solution but better than avoiding issue.
I wish to express my condolence to the extended family also. RIP.
Plug the schools into Soar http://www.soar.ie
have your say