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.

It suggests that less than half those with such difficulties are receiving appropriate treatment.

Mr Mulvihill said the issues of mental health are just as clear to second-level school staff as to their primary counterparts.

“We’ve become more aware of it in recent years, maybe because of the access to psychologists and the introduction of resource teachers and special needs assistants,” he added.

“We’re conscious of a big shortage of psychologists and there are definitely some students going without any assistance or whose problems have not been diagnosed,” he said.

Mr Mulvihill said mental health is an issue that guidance counsellors need to address in their dual role as career advisers and personal counsellors.

“The personal counselling aspect is very often being sacrificed because of the emphasis on academic achievement. It’s very important that the assistance and ability to help is there,” he said.

Staffing levels in most schools, however, means that a school with less than 500 students does not have year-round access to a counsellor — as they must also teach mainstream subjects.

“Even when a school has full guidance resources, the hours set aside for guidance and counselling are not always being used for those purposes, and many counsellors are being asked to teach subject classes as well,” according to Mr Mulvihill.

“If we’re not being given time for one-to-one [counselling] with kids about issues they’ve been diagnosed with, or if they need someone to listen to them, they will get through the net — [despite] the big debate about mental health and suicide,” he said.