Students’ mental health issues ‘slip through net’

STUDENTS with mental health issues in second-level schools are slipping through the net due to a shortage of personal counselling, an expert has warned.

Frank Mulvihill, president of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors, said time constraints mean his members’ work is almost solely dedicated to career and educational advice, at the expense of their other function to give personal guidance.

A survey by the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) for last week’s Prime Time programme on RTÉ television, suggested that more than 26,000 primary pupils — or 6% of the total — may have undiagnosed mental health problems.