Irish Examiner view: A boost for student mental health services
The new national database documenting issues for which students seek support from college counselling services will launch next year. Picture: iStock
While third-level education may inspire a default mental
picture of throngs of young people with backpacks, the challenges of college life can conjure up some less welcome images also.
Those range from the footage of students wrecking a house in Limerick recently to more quotidian challenges, such as the online pictures of students’ cars clogging roadways near colleges all over Ireland. The latter represent the ongoing issue of accommodation and transport which faces many students — a stress they could do without.
Such stresses make Education Correspondent Jess Casey’s story this week all the more welcome — she reported that a new national database documenting issues for which students seek support from college counselling services will launch next year.
It will be part of a new national framework for higher education institutions dealing with student mental health and suicide prevention which was launched this week by the Higher Education Authority.
The new policy, Folláine le Chéile, will place more emphasis on mental health promotion and student wellbeing, though it will also recognise the importance of student-facing mental health support services.
There is a resonance in the initial framework dating to 2020, the year the covid pandemic began. Many of this year’s — and next year’s — college students had their schooling seriously disrupted by the pandemic, and their arrival in third-level education has coincided with other challenges: The cost-of-living crisis, problems in education arising from artificial intelligence, as well as the aforementioned pressure to secure accommodation.
Those students deserve every support which can be made available to them.
The new framework is a welcome addition to the services which already exist, and should form part of a holistic approach benefiting those students in the coming years.
This week saw the sentencing of George Gibney, a former swim coach, to 15 and a half years for the sexual abuse of young swimmers 50 years ago.
Sentencing judge Mr Justice Mícheál O’Higgins told the Central Criminal Court on Monday that the former coach’s reputation was “in tatters”, and little wonder: Gibney was found guilty by a jury of 39 counts of indecent assault and one count of attempted rape relating to four young swimmers
between 1971 and 1981, following a trial earlier this year.
He had also pleaded guilty to a further five counts of indecent assault of one complainant at the outset of the trial.
Huge credit is due to those who pursued Gibney, among them journalist Mark Horgan, who travelled across Ireland, the UK, and the US in his search for the truth — a quest made all the more challenging by the fact that some of the offences dated back over half a century.
In that context, it is worth considering the comments of some of Gibney’s victims, such as Trish Kearney.
As reported here by Alex Cunningham, Ms Kearney said she was delighted Gibney was found guilty, but added: “I feel too for the girls and maybe boys that went through Gibney’s swimming club and haven’t actually come forward. I think this is a day for all of them as well. You know that we think of them, and just celebrate everybody who has survived.”
It is certainly important to remember survivors of abuse who have not come forward. They should be
That is a lesson which needs to be taken from this situation and applied in abuse cases across the board. Those who have been victimised like this must be shown that they will be helped, and that there is a way forward for them.
An unusual crime took place in France this week, with hackers turning up the heat, literally, in supermarket fridges across the country.
The company which owns retailer Intermarché reported that about 150 of its stores had been affected, with their fridges heated up to 50C for six hours.
A spokesperson said the stores had disposed of all the food, to avoid any health risks. Other chains affected include Carrefour, which stated that 80 of its supermarkets were hit, while Monoprix said that 5% of its 490 stores in France were affected.
In some stores, the damage was not confined to food spoiling in fridges; there were fires in some locations as a result of the overheating, and Intermarché CEO Thierry Cotillard estimated losses running to “tens of millions of euro nationwide in a single day”.
There is some speculation that a specific vulnerability in the software which governs remote control of fridge temperature may have compromised the system. This underlines the importance of remotely-operated systems being updated to maintain security.
However, hackers are being blamed for this attack, and the French government has already taken action, with prime minister Sébastien Lecornu instructing France’s national cybersecurity agency to investigate the matter.
It is worth remembering that French president Emmanuel Macron, a strong supporter of Ukraine against Russia, last month ordered measures to protect France’s critical infrastructure from Russian “hybrid attacks”.
Is Russia responsible for this particular attack?
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
