Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

They say it is a rarity but let us prove them wrong, a Cheann Comhairle.

I will start by saying something that will make me and everyone else here sound like an old fogey. The world we knew as children and young people is extremely different from the world that our children and young people are growing up and living in. It is up to us to support them when they need it, to build resilience and to ensure that they have the strength when they need to call upon it. It is also important that a safety net is there to catch them when they fall, because they are still children and young people and most of them will fall at some point. This report is excellent. It really displays quite clearly the time, effort and consideration that all members of the committee - which was before my time, so I am not singing my own praises here - put into this. Highlighting this as a national issue that warranted examination by producing a report with such condensed recommendations that should be taken as a to-do list is a credit to the committee.

While some action has been taken, action has not been taken on all of the recommendations. While some have been implemented on a pilot basis, they have not been reviewed and therefore the outcomes of any review have not been acted on by the Government. More needs to be done. I think we can all agree on that. However, over the past number of years, the Government has been sitting on its hands when it comes to youth mental health. This now needs to be made a priority. We know the resources are available to make it happen but we have yet to see the political will to actually put it in place. Any funding announced for school students' mental health and well-being is of course welcome. The recently published tender to procure services for further supporting well-being and mental health in secondary schools is also welcome. However, those announcements are being made at a time parents have paths worn to GPs and other service providers. Parents are nearly at their wits' end to get their children the help and support they need. Students in very real need of help are experiencing difficulties that most of us as adults would buckle under the weight of. Although any additional funding will always be welcome, it is not near what it should be and what it needs to be. It most certainly is not going to cover all of the schools. It presents, in many ways, as another announcement to distract from the very real, hard realities of mental health services for children and young people under this Government.

There has been a failure to prioritise youth mental health, particularly in the light of pandemic restrictions. That should have been very well flagged in the immediate term and actioned in the short term. That said, we must remember when speaking about students and teachers that teachers are not mental health professionals. Many questions need to be asked. Who will be the professionals in that room? How will these schemes be run? What action will be taken to ensure fairness? What will be the criteria for choosing participating schools in any future pilot schemes? Although teachers play a crucial role in identifying signs of children struggling with their mental health, their role is to educate. That comes across very strongly in this report. On page 47 the report cites the NAPD submission:

Additionally, 'engagement of schools with the HSE services is primarily by third party letter through the parent and this lack of direct contact is having a negative impact on the student and the abilities of schools to respond appropriately to support the student in the school.'

It goes on to say on the same page, "Many witnesses noted that the lack of direct involvement and CAMHS creates much difficulty for the school and for the student's family." Direct referrals used to take place but since the financial crash there is a system where the parents are left to, "...manoeuvre the web of waiting lists that is out there... there was a time when I could ask for a case conference in respect of a child, where the child was at the centre of the table...". It is explicitly clear that schools want to play their part but they need help to enable them to meet the needs of the children in their classrooms.

The report goes on to say:

A further issue identified was that during the diagnosis phase, mental health services will be engaged with the school to collect information or perform assessments in situ. However, unless it is provided by the parent or guardian, the results and recommendations of these assessments are not communicated to the school.

That is a cause for great concern. To support teachers, staff and students, services such as NEPS need to be adequately resourced. Sinn Féin recognises the role of educational psychologists and their position in our education system. Only a matter of months ago it was reported that NEPS was down by approximately 20% on its required staffing levels. The service is understaffed and underfunded and it is struggling to meet demand.

Our youth mental health services are in crisis, with waiting lists for CAMHS increasing by eye-watering percentages. The waiting time for community psychologists in some areas can be as much as two years. Each of these children and their families who are desperately waiting on an appointment is being failed. It is a disgrace and it cannot be allowed to continue. These failures mean that early intervention is passing our young people by and that is unacceptable.

The tender for the post-primary school system is welcome but how many more children are going to fall through the cracks over the next two or three years while that gets up and running? What is an acceptable number for us who are tasked with providing that safety net? This is not good enough. Mental health services in schools cannot be done in a silo. This is explicitly outlined in the committee's report. The services must work in tandem because mental health needs do not only exist between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. or during the school term.

Young people deserve better. They deserve a health service that works for them. Schools have made it clear that they want to play a role and help with this. The health service needs multi-annual workforce planning, capital investment and accountability reforms to deliver the service that these children and young people need. Behind every waiting list figure is a young person with hopes and dreams. These hopes and dreams are being denied them because they are never going to reach their full potential without support.

I want to give a very clear example of one such young person in the time remaining to me. I will call him Joe. He is 16 and I had a very long conversation with his dad quite recently. Joe has ASD, ADHD and he struggles with his mental health. Joe's mum passed away in a tragic road accident when he was a few months old. His dad has always done all in his power to help but he is not a professional. His dad remembers Joe being referred to intervention therapies. He followed up with phone calls. Joe has yet to receive any therapies.

He is 16. Nothing is beyond dad in what he will do but he cannot do it alone. Joe, now a young 16-year-old, is not in school nor in training and he is at very high risk of becoming a lost child. Dad is desperate. His family are desperate. Despite them not being professionals, they know there is an urgent need. This young lad, with his whole life in front of him, is in many ways the face of the Government's failure to get a handle on and properly invest in youth mental health. Joe and others like him are paying a very heavy price for that failure.

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