Bressie urges schools to focus on mental health

Irish schools need to put more of an emphasis on mental health, according to Voice of Ireland coach Bressie.

The musician, whose real name is Niall Breslin, spoke at a sold-out conference in University College Cork (UCC) last night which also featured disability campaigner Joanne O’Riordan.

Tonight's #BreakingDownBarriers talk in @UCC was inspirational. @nbrez speech was amazing and really hit home. Thanks for sharing your story

— Ciara O' Leary (@Ciara_Anne_x) February 11, 2015

“Our education system is draconian in the way it deals with things,” said Bressie.

“It places more emphasis on Maths and English and Irish than it does on people’s emotional wellbeing. I mean, Maths and English and Irish mean nothing if you’re not in a good place.”

Despite this, the former Leinster rugby player says Ireland has come a long way in recent years in terms of dispelling the stigma surrounding mental health issues.

“I remember when we were doing the Cycle for Suicide and we were trying to get into schools to talk about it and they didn’t want us there, they didn’t want us to come. And nowadays there are so many schools looking to talk about it that we can’t even get around to all of them,” he said.

“I would estimate around 50% of people in this country are dealing with mental health issues. But it’s only now people are beginning to talk about it. It would be funny if it wasn’t so serious.”

The Breaking down Barriers conference was organised by UCC Students’ Union as a part of UCC Disability Awareness Week.