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. Craig Petrie:

To pick up on that, we had a case of maternity leave in our school a couple of years ago and because we could not get a full teacher in to do the job, we got somebody to cover the classes and then, for the pastoral role the person had, we got in a psychologist to work with us. The richness that that brought to the experience of our school support team and pastoral care was extraordinary. It would have been a brilliant jumping off point for us to be able to encourage one or two of those staff to pursue that sort of area, whether simply as a counsellor or as a psychologist, but that avenue just is not open to them. We lose because of that. Our whole school community loses because of that.