James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)

Some examples of the types of projects being supported through that funding include the national student counselling database implementation project. This facilitates the identification of trends in the mental health needs of students attending student counselling services. It measures and monitors what trends are coming through from access to counselling services and identifies areas for further attention.

There is a platform called Togetherall, which provides 24-7 peer support. Psychological counsellors in Higher Education Ireland are being supported in their work, through the higher education institutions. Research and co-ordination around suicide and self-harm is being performed on an ongoing basis. A screening tool that is being developed selects the most appropriate person-centric interventions for students with mental health presentations. This tracks the well-being outcomes of students who engage with the service. A national health and well-being assessment tool has been developed to enable institutions to implement and progress the healthy campus charter and framework. There is also an ongoing review of the national student mental health and suicide prevention framework. A lot of actions are being taken and a lot of good projects are under way. These are meaningful and impactful for the individual students, as well as for the host institutions. Ultimately, the institutions retain autonomy as to what other projects they may wish to implement.

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