Mental health in the education system

Vulnerable children in Ireland have been subject to some of the gravest and systematic human rights violations in our history. Yet still today, we fail to fully protect the rights of children with mental health problems.

One particular area of concern is how mental health is approached in the education system.

At the moment neither children nor teachers are getting sufficient support on mental health in schools. By ensuring we adopt a “whole-school” approach in an early intervention setting, we can have a truly positive affect on people’s education prospects, their mental health, their teachers, their families, their classmates and ultimately society as a whole.

But we need the Minister for Education to prioritise this - and we need your support to make his happen. Please write to Minister Ruairi Quinn today.

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Dear Minister,

Following December's Budget, there has been a lot of discussion about education services. Issues such as Guidance Counsellors, Special Needs Assistants and the funding of DEIS schools have occupied much of your time over the past couple of months. Each is an important issues, recognising investment in our education system is investment in our own future, as well as our children's.

An area which the above issues all feed into is that of mental health in our schools. It is an overarching area of importance that would greatly benefit from your attention. As you will be aware, your Department along with the Department of Health, the HSE and the Department of Children are currently drafting guidelines for schools in relation to mental health in our education system. This development is welcome and the prioritisation of this process in your Department would be further welcomed.

It has been shown that early intervention is massively beneficial both in instances of people with mental health difficulties and of those with educational difficulties. The benefit of a 'whole-school' approach must now be seriously considered in light of the long-term benefits for individuals, their classmates, their teachers and society in general. This approach would give teachers a basic understanding of mental health, encourage greater links between community mental health teams and local schools, and generally bring about a greater awareness of mental health in our education system.

Mental well-being is a key factor to the delivery of the Department of Education strategy on literacy and numeracy and is also key to improving school attendance rates. Ensuring schools are well-equipped and well supported to educate students about mental health and mental well-being and to support students with mental health problems will also deliver cost savings for the State in the long term and ensure better health and educational outcomes for children.

In addressing this issue you will be giving people the opportunity to realise their true potential and positively contributing to the development of Irish society in many different ways. I am calling upon you to publicly demonstrate your concern on this issue, assign senior responsibility for this issue within your Department, publish the inter-departmental guidelines and include the 'whole school' approach in this.

Yours sincerely,

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Mental health in the education system

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