Mental health staff are struggling to deal with the level of demand of students presenting in distress on university campuses, according to students’ union representatives.
Counsellors say anxiety, low mood and loneliness are among the most common presentations for counselling services on campus.
Sarah Hughes of the Union of Students of Ireland (USI) said: “Recently on a campus visit, I saw the strain that is being put on services, as there was only standing room left in the waiting room for an emergency counselling drop-in clinic.”
She said latest data indicates that mental distress was increasing among students before the pandemic and appears to have continued to increase throughout.
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At the same time, she said was a shortage of mental health staff on campus to respond to demand as a result of underfunding. Many were part-time, she said, and were not sure if they will still be working from month to month.
“The current funding that is allocated to mental health support in higher education institutions is not core or multi annual,” she said.
While extra funding provided for mental health during Covid was greatly welcomed, she said, it only brought the student-counsellor ratio to 1: 2,500 rather than the international best standard practice of 1:1,000.
Ms Hughes was speaking at an Oireachtas committee on education which focused on mental health pressures facing pupils and students in the education system.
The Irish National Teachers’ Organisation said research carried out by the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in 2013 suggests that approximately one in three young people will have experienced some type of mental disorder by the age of 13. It said school principals have reported wait times of up to four years for child and adolescent mental health services in some areas.
“This is unacceptable and cannot continue,” said Máirín Ní Chéileachair, the INTO’s assistant general secretary.
Pilot project
In other jurisdictions, she said mental health professionals work in schools, alongside teachers, to support the mental health of pupils.
While teachers in Ireland were committed to supporting the mental health and emotional development of their pupils, Ms Ní Chéileachair sad this was often done without training or resources.
“Teachers are not therapists, psychologists or psychiatrists and should not be expected to act as such,” she said.
She welcomed a pilot project by the Department of Education and HSE which is providing in-school therapies, and called for it to be expanded with sufficient specialist staff.
“Similar schemes in the UK have enjoyed enormous success and merit further study, as do models in Iceland and other countries,” she said.
She added that while teachers know their pupils well and are well placed to respond to many of their needs, it should never be assumed that teachers should replace appropriately qualified therapeutic professionals.
Moira Leydon of the Association of Secondary Teachers’ Ireland (ASTI) told the committee that the union wished to see the pilot project extended to second level.
She said there was a growing body of evidence to show that exposure to adverse early childhood experiences is directly associated with poor mental and physical health outcomes.
Ms Leydon referenced research by Dr Paul Downes of DCU on the educational experiences of a sample of homeless men in Dublin which found that “flashpoints” included the transition from primary to second level; negative engagement with schools’ norms and policies leading to frequent suspension and expulsion.
“Above all, the report resonates with a call for help while in school in terms of behaviour, anger management, feeling alienated from teachers and their peers, family problems,” she said
