Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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143. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Question No. 30 of 18 January 2017 and his commitment to review the proposal to have an advertisement for Pieta House services in school journals, if he will provide an update. [7574/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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My Department has considered this proposal. I agree that information on a comprehensive range of support services should be available to schools and young people in Ireland. I also believe that suicide prevention should form part of a balanced and age-appropriate strategy to promote mental health and wellbeing among children and young people.

I believe that an appropriate and immediate response should be triggered within schools and from health services when a young person experiences a mental health crisis.

I recognise the valuable services of Pieta House in supporting those in suicidal crisis. It is not possible for me to require schools to include specific information in school journals.

However my Department’s focus remains on assisting schools in the implementation of the guidelines provided and in providing advice and clarity to both staff and pupils on the range of services both statutory and non-statutory which exist outside the school supporting all aspects of mental health and wellbeing.