The Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs, Mr Ahern, officially opened a counselling centre for young people in Dundalk yesterday.
The new centre will be operated by the Dundalk Counselling Centre which last year had 514 counselling sessions with young people. It has been operating since the 1980s.
Its director, Ms Annette MacArtain, said that "at that time Dundalk was in a cycle of deprivation from the point of view of unemployment and money lending and immigration from Northern Ireland". "I think what we are seeing in young people today are the results of all of that. You get young people coming through school now who are experiencing a disadvantaged lifestyle where there wouldn't be a lot of money knocking around and they are really challenged to attend school."
The waiting lists are full, although the centre rarely advertises. Its annual report, also launched yesterday, says 37 per cent of the young people it counselled were self-referrals and 30 per cent were referred by parents or other relatives. The biggest problem was depression (16 per cent), difficulty communicating and expressing feelings (11 per cent), anxiety and panic attacks (8 per cent), anger and aggression (6 per cent) and low self-esteem (5 per cent).
The report says: "It is crucial that these young people have access to a counselling service that provides a safe environment for them to explore and resolve some of these difficulties and to prevent any future escalation".
Dundalk is one of the pilot areas for a Department of Education initiative, targeting potential early school-leavers. As part of that, the projects co-ordinator in Dundalk, Ms Clodagh O'Mahony, worked with the Dundalk Counselling Centre.
Once a week students on the project attend for an afternoon during which they take part in self-development exercises and talk about their feelings in a confidential setting. "We looked at supports that could be put inside school and outside school for young people to prevent them dropping out at an early age and it is very much an inter-agency approach and integration of all services," Ms O'Mahony explained.
"We felt a whole area that needed to be looked at was counselling and mentoring and group work and we were lucky the Dundalk Counselling Centre was here. Everybody recognises now that one of the key things in developing young people is self-esteem and belief and confidence in themselves. Really if that isn't there, well then maybe achievement at school is all the more difficult," she added.
Mr Ahern said he was aware of the need for youth and adolescent centres in Ireland today and specifically in Dundalk. "There is a huge need for the centre. The figures of people coming are fairly dramatic, 85 young people who have problems with low esteem and confidence right down to prostitution. It is a necessary service and my Department and Peace and Reconciliation are involved in funding it," he said.