Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 29 November 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills

Mental Health Supports in Schools and Tertiary Education: Discussion

Mr. Ryan Sharpe:

Having the assigned day to go in and speak to a guidance counsellor. As Darragh said, you do not have to talk about everything going on in your head. You can sit down and have a chat about football, rugby or whatever, but it is about building up trust with someone. It is unrealistic to think a student will go in and on the first day start talking about their mental health when they might have never spoken about it before. It is about having a regular schedule of going in and seeing someone. You can slowly build up the trust and eventually they might come out with what is going on or if something is happening.