Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 18 October 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills

Mental Health Supports in Schools and Tertiary Education: Discussion

Mr. Mark McDonald:

They can operate very locally or regionally. In my ETB, for example, we are doing psychological first aid. First, we are training a group of teachers in youth reach and that will go out then to primary and post-primary schools. It means a small network of people but maybe one from every school gets good training in psychological first aid. As Mr. Crone has said, it is not about replacing expertise but to give some ideas to staff such as how to identify, how to see it and what can be done from there. Training can be done very simply at a schools level, regional level or county level.