Mental health teams to be brought into primary schools

Minister for Education Norma Foley is expected to launch the second phase of a €5m pilot programme of counselling and mental health support for primary schools this week.

New in-school mental health teams are to be established in Cork primary schools as part of the second phase of a landmark educational wellbeing pilot programme to be announced this week.

This week, Minister for Education Norma Foley is expected to launch the second phase of a €5m pilot programme of counselling and mental health support for primary schools.

The rollout of the programme was widely welcomed when the minister announced in May that free counselling was to be offered to primary school students throughout Cavan, Laois, Leitrim, Longford, Mayo, Monaghan, and Tipperary.

Through the pilot project, schools in these areas will have access to up to eight counselling sessions for each individual child supported as an early intervention measure to prevent the escalation of difficulties.

Counties with sufficient availability of counsellors were selected for the first strand of the pilot project.

Launching the programme last month, Ms Foley acknowledged that covid and its associated disruptions have impacted young people.

“Even prior to that, I think we've always been conscious that there will be students who, for whatever reason, might disengage with school, might be reluctant to attend school, have heightened anxiety or whatever the case might be,” said Ms Foley. 

According to sources in the Department of Education, the second strand of this pilot project involves the establishment of new in-school support, in the form of educational wellbeing and mental health teams in clusters of primary schools.

Strand 2 of the programme is considered an essential element of the support needed by schools for students' wellbeing, particularly post-Covid lockdowns and school closures, and to address increased needs.

With further details expected to be announced in the coming days, these clusters will be in primary schools in Cork, North Dublin and Carlow.

It is understood the support that will be provided through the pilot will focus on strengthening whole-school preventative approaches, including the provision of psycho-education support for parents and teachers.

Early intervention

It will also target early intervention for groups of children, or individual children, with mild or emerging needs, using low-level therapeutic approaches.

The in-school supports will also see the introduction of a new type of practitioner into the education system, the Educational Wellbeing/Mental Health Practitioner, who will work under the supervision of psychologists from the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS).

Each team will comprise one NEPS psychologist and four Education Wellbeing/Mental Health Practitioners.

It is expected that these practitioners will be graduates, ideally coming from courses in psychology, education or social science.

Additional training will be provided by NEPS psychologists and their work in schools will also be under the close supervision of NEPS.

The roll-out of the project was welcomed last month by both the Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) and the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (IACP).

IACP chief executive Lisa Molloy said: "We will continue to offer our support to the department in any way we can be helpful, including in the recruitment process for establishing panels of qualified counsellors."