Mental health - Shock study highlights funding gap

IT IS alarming to learn that one-in-five teenagers in Ireland experience mental health problems and that children under the age of 11 have been clinically diagnosed as hooked on alcohol.

It is also disturbing to note that 16% of teenagers who suffer mental disorders have seriously considered committing suicide.

Remarkably, these revelations do not emanate from urban black-spots in a major city. On the contrary, they reflect the problems confronting young people in one town in rural Ireland.

The Clonmel Report, which examined the mental health of 75% of the children living and attending school in the south Tipperary town, is the first study of its kind. Its shock findings show that the most serious problems were detected among the more socially disadvantaged and stressed families.

It is unconscionable that such important work is not getting additional funding.