Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 8 November 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills

Mental Health Supports in Schools and Tertiary Education: Discussion (Resumed)

Professor Paul Downes:

On the Chairman's last point about family resource centres, since 2011 Eurochild has advocated for multidisciplinary teams that are community-based through family centres. It wants this across all of Europe, so there is the argument about developing the capacity of family resource centres for multidisciplinary teams that can come into schools.

Going back to the Chairman's other point, obviously the size of the school is going to be important. Much of the debate about counsellors at third level is about the ratio between the students and the specialist counsellors for the one-to-one sessions. It would be great to get even that level of debate for secondary schools and primary schools.