Dr. Sharon Lambert:

There have been very positive developments in the funding of counselling spaces in education. When we talk to people working in primary and secondary education, they are struggling with the number of young people who have mental health difficulties. If we do not get in there at that stage, they are at increased risk when leaving school, and once they leave school, they are at increased risk in respect of the other issues that we have spoken about, such as drug-related debt. That debt did not exist prior to 2014. It just did not happen at that stage and if people wanted to use drugs, they had to pay for them. This issue emerged and it is a very significant difficulty for young people and their parents. There are people all over the country taking drugs who can afford to, so they do not get into drug-related debt, but there are other young people who perhaps do not have resources and are getting themselves into difficulties.