Mr. Paul Gilligan:

I thank the joint committee for the invitation to attend. Significant numbers of children aged 13 and under are experiencing mental health difficulties and are not receiving the help they require. Many others are likely experiencing difficulties that are going undetected.

Experience of mental ill-health and poor emotional wellbeing can have a significant adverse impact on a child’s experience and attainment at school, their friendships and family relationships and their day-to-day life. When problems are unidentified or the child is unsupported and-or appropriate and timely help is not provided, a child can deteriorate.

Under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, every child has a right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. This right covers the full spectrum of health and wellbeing. The guaranteeing of the right require a comprehensive multisectoral response through integrated systems that involve parents, peers, the wider family and schools and the provision of support and assistance through trained staff. The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child endorses a public health and psychosocial support approach to mental health rather than just the medicalisation or institutional approach.

In 1992, Ireland committed to promoting all children’s rights, including the right to health, when it ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Ireland was last examined by the committee in 2016 and, at that time, the committee expressed several concerns relating to mental healthcare, including the long waiting times for treatment, the lack of access to out-of-hours support and children being admitted to adult psychiatric wards, owing to inadequate availability of mental healthcare facilities for children. The committee recommended that Ireland improve the capacities, capabilities and quality of its mental healthcare services for children and adolescents.

Evidence indicates that children and adolescents experiencing even the most severe mental health difficulties can, with the right support at the right time, make a full recovery and live fulfilling and productive lives. Given the limited number of community specialist mental health services and child inpatient beds, it is critical that community and school-based care for children is resourced. While the recent announcement by the Department of Education for funding of a pilot programme for primary schools to provide specialist counselling supports is a step in the right direction, it is vital to invest adequately upstream and develop a co-ordinated multi-agency response to initial presentations of need to prevent conditions worsening over time.

It is now imperative that a primary schools mental health service is established. Such a service would not only strengthen and support the mental health wellbeing of thousands of children, but would also support parents and teachers and would reduce the number of children requiring specialist mental health treatment and support from child and adolescent mental health services.

A service called mental health support teams, developed in the UK over the past two years, offers a model through which primary school children could receive the mental health awareness and support they require. A similar service being run in Moyross in Limerick is also indicating positive outcomes. It is our proposal that such a service based on this model be established in Ireland on a pilot basis as a matter of urgency, and that subject to evaluation, the service be extended and made available on a national basis.

I thank the committee members for their time.