Concern at rise in students seeking help from ’underfunded’ services

The number of third-level students seeking counselling is increasing every year, but services remain overstretched and underfunded.

That is according to the Irish Association of University and College Counsellors.

In the academic year 2012/13, more than 8,000 students sought counselling — attending around 36,000 consultations nationally.

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These numbers are likely to rise dramatically this year with counsellors expecting to see in excess of 10,000 students by the start of summer.

“The reason we’re seeing more students looking to talk is two-pronged. There’s an increased complexity of mental health problems out there at the moment and there’s more and more people willing to come forward for help. Years ago it wasn’t acceptable to look for help but now it is,” said Dr Declan Aherne of the association.

“There have been huge changes in counselling services over the last 30 years or so. We have such a varied population now and there’s also an increase in the level of mental health issues presenting. Suicidality has increased so there’s an increasing amount of people thinking about suicide as opposed to actively planning for it.”

Common reasons for a student to seek counselling include anxiety, depression, and relationship issues.

To cope with the increasing demand, Dr Aherne said services need far more resources, suggesting that the HSE contribute towards running costs. “I don’t think any of the counselling services in universities or colleges would disagree with me when I say they all need increased resources but the question is, where do we look for those,” he asked.

“I have put it out there before that the HSE should contribute to the costs of running counselling services at third level as it would also help with waiting lists within the HSE.

“It makes sense to me that these services are on campus and easily accessible so why not just invest in that rather than having students go off campus, making them wait for potentially very long periods to be seen?”

Very interesting graph from IAUCC - there have been huge increase in demand for 3rd level counselling services pic.twitter.com/Re9zEMTzpH

— Ceallach Ní Bhriain (Kelly O'Brien) (@Kellingtondawg) April 9, 2015

In 2007/08 third-level counselling services saw 3,863 students. This figure has more than doubled in recent years and waiting lists are getting longer.

“Waiting lists are a huge issue — there are big numbers waiting to be seen. Years ago it was all about encouraging students to talk about their problems and encouraging them to come forward if they needed help and now we’re in a situation where we’ve queues a mile long,” Dr Aherne said.

“September sees students begin to come in at about 10 a day. So by mid-March we’ve reached saturation point and people start to go on waiting lists. Students come in all year round for various different reasons.”

Despite being overstretched and underfunded, feedback from students has been overwhelmingly positive on the service.

Satisfaction rates are around 92%, while 80% of students who used the service said the counselling helped them to stay in college.

“It’s a non-medical treatment of mental health issues, so you don’t need to go to a GP to access the service. Outside of college, you’d have to go to a GP so that they could refer you for counselling or therapy and go on waiting lists for those services,” Dr Aherne said.

“Services are doing a fantastic job and students really relate to it. There’s not the same stigma attached to it as there would be outside of campus.”

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