Dr. Joseph Duffy:

Jigsaw warmly welcomes this opportunity to contribute to the vital work of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs. We all know that adolescence is a time of huge change and upheaval. The journey from childhood to adulthood is complex and challenging and for many young people this journey can be particularly tough to handle. Jigsaw's vision is an Ireland where every young person's mental health is valued and supported. Jigsaw was established in 2006, as Headstrong, to meet an identified gap in service provision for young people struggling with their mental health, possibly with emerging mental health issues, who did not require the support of specialist mental health services.

Previous research by Jigsaw has shown that a third of Ireland's young people have experienced mental health difficulties. Our evidence and our experience of working with young people tell us that many across Ireland struggle daily with anxiety, low mood, stress and isolation. The cost of this mental health crisis to Ireland's economy is a staggering €8.3 billion a year, not to mention the devastating personal cost to an individual's quality of life and physical well-being. We know social inequalities are associated with higher rates of mental health difficulties. The more unequal the society, the greater the rate of distress. In Ireland, this is particularly relevant given that the gap between rich and poor is growing and the numbers of young people finding themselves homeless is on the rise.

The young people we see tell us about how they feel under tremendous pressure to succeed and excel at school, at home, on the sports ground and in social groups. Jigsaw supports thousands of young people across Ireland every year through our community based youth mental health services, our work educating parents, teachers and young people, and our information and guidance at .

Since Jigsaw was founded, young people have been involved in helping us to develop and design our services. We now have a youth advisory panel in each of our services and the national office. These panels are made up of young people aged between 16 and 25 years who may or may not have experience of the mental health system but who all are passionate about this area. Our youth advisers asked me to emphasise the following to the committee today. A holistic approach is needed to address the causes of mental health difficulties. Young people are worried about big issues in society, such as inaction over climate change, increased homelessness, academic pressure and the pressure on minority groups. More specifically, they are concerned about wait times for mental health support, gaps between child and adolescent and adult mental health services and the cost of private therapeutic support. Awareness campaigns are not enough; young people respond better to information from their peers.

In Jigsaw, we believe in intervening early with mental health difficulties, offering a therapeutic service to young people at primary care level. We also believe in listening to each young person's judgment of his or her own needs, hence we have a service with no lower threshold. We aim to construct an understanding of what is happening in a young person's life with him or her, rather than solely through the objective assessment of the clinician as the mental health expert.

We know that there is no easy fix or miracle solution for mental health problems because these are complex and challenging, but there is much that Government and policymakers can do to better support young people who are experiencing mental health difficulties. For this reason, we are calling for an increased focus on mental health services that are proactive, community based, integrated and early interventionist in nature. Investment in keeping people well, rather than waiting until they are very unwell, has the potential to save lives and save significant financial resourcing. Investing in early intervention, implementing the recommendations of the National Youth Mental Health Task Force Report 2017, will contribute to making a real meaningful difference to the mental health of Ireland's young people and give them the best possible chance for a full and healthy future.

Jigsaw very much welcomes this opportunity to discuss the issues that we have raised further during this meeting. I thank the committee for the invitation to participate in this process.