Ms Ann Murphy:

I would like to add to the excellent points that have been made. When we talk about what we should do or what we will do, I worry that we are paying lip service or ticking boxes. It has been said that counselling is now available in primary care. Counselling may be available for some people after a very long wait. The maximum number of sessions that is provided is eight. Two, three or eight sessions might be absolutely satisfactory and adequate for some people, but wildly inadequate for other people. When an administrator says this, it is like saying to a GP like Dr. Barry that he can prescribe no more than two days of antibiotics to one of his patients irrespective of his or her condition. We can think we are doing the right thing by providing all kinds of services and teaching coping skills, etc., but it is likely to be no more than a box-ticking exercise unless the service is provided thoughtfully, with integrity and in line with the actual needs of the patient.

I will conclude by returning to what we have heard about coping skills. Children do not just learn from what we tell them. Children learn most in life from how they are treated, which depends on the health and well-being of their parents and the resources of the teachers and others who are dealing with them. It is a good idea to develop programmes in schools to teach children how to deal with difficulties in life, but those programmes will have very little purchase unless those children experience healthy, warm and supportive relationships in their families from an early stage. More and more studies on attachment are showing that children's earliest bonding experiences have an extraordinary effect on subsequent brain development.