Dr. Joseph Duffy:

We have been working with teachers for several years. We connected with them through schools that contacted the Jigsaw service to mention a particular pupil or concern. We realised several things. The teachers themselves would say they were trained to teach a subject but found they were teaching the whole person. They are teaching young people, and a young person's ability to learn and participate in class is very influenced by his or her well-being and mental health. In working with teachers and the teachers' education centres, we have been upskilling teachers on awareness of mental health. We have done a lot of work around a concept called "one good teacher". This means a teacher does not freeze on hearing a young person's concerns and knows how to connect with services in the community. We have built skills as well. We have worked with the National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS, and local primary care. We have particularly worked in Meath and we are now spreading that out through a model called one good school, which looks to support teachers, parents and young people. We have had a series of smaller initiatives for a long time. We offer peer education in which young people can participate. They are trained to talk about mental health and they deliver that message to their peers, the other pupils in the school. We have educated parents on how they can support young people. We have looked at this in a very holistic way.