Mental health and suicide prevention in schools “is not about going to one person any more”, Minister of State for Mental Health Kathleen Lynch said yesterday.
She was speaking at the launch by the Department of Health and the Department of Education of national mental health guidelines for schools. The guidelines, due to be posted to second-level schools this week, are to assist every school staff member to recognise and support pupils, one in 10 of whom experience mental health disorders in youth.
Ms Lynch said “whether it’s the caretaker, the person serving the food, the guidance counsellor, the principal, the teacher or the classroom assistant”, responding to the mental health issues of pupils was “the business of everyone in the school”.
However, the Institute of Guidance Counsellor’s has described the guidelines as “a code for nobody’s responsibility”. Betty McLaughlin said while the institute welcomed the interdepartmental approach, the scheme was “a safety net and there are lots of holes in that net”.
“When the children fall through the net there will be nobody there to pick them up,” she said.
