Dr. Joseph Duffy:

I thank the Vice Chairperson for her support of Jigsaw. We know and have talked this morning of the significant need to support young people. Jigsaw is looking to philanthropic funding at present to support young people, particularly in further and then in higher education. One of the things we are looking at is one good peer or peer-to-peer support. We know students support each other very well.

The other part of it is thinking about focusing on some particular cohorts, such as student nurses, and helping them in minding their mental health, given the importance of their roles and the stresses that will be involved. We are also looking at improving mental health in the curriculum. As my colleagues said, that is a long-term piece. When we talk about a preventative measure in mental health, we are probably looking at returns across a ten-year period, but it is well worth doing it because if we just focus on the acute side of it we are not making any changes. The whole point of A Vision for Change and Sharing the Vision was to focus on primary care, especially in respect of mental health.

It also involves thinking about a broad understanding in making sense of mental health and thinking about the educators themselves. We know from our experience in second level, and the Vice Chairperson referred to it, that people were taught in teacher training colleges to teach a subject. They are now very much conscious of teaching the whole person. How do we lecture or provide support at a third level college for a whole person approach? It is thinking about it in terms of a broad, healthy campus. There are great policies and initiatives and so on, but how is that being supported in very practical ways? There is lots of information, supports and other agencies that are there. We are very willing to play our part, but how will that be co-ordinated and supported?