Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 17 February 2021
449. Deputy Mark Ward asked the Minister for Education if she has considered increasing access for children to therapeutic mental health supports via the introduction of a counselling support service for second-level schools. [8765/21]
View answerWhile the provision of child and adolescent mental health services lies within the remit of the Department of Health, and the HSE specifically, my Department has an important role to play in supporting the wellbeing and mental health of our young people. My Department’s Wellbeing Policy and Framework for practice has given recognition to the importance of promoting wellbeing in education. It outlines a comprehensive, whole-school approach to the promotion of wellbeing and positive mental health. It focuses on the whole school community, as well as groups and individual young people with identified needs.
The National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) of my Department provides a comprehensive, school-based psychological service to all primary and post primary schools through the application of psychological theory and practice to support the wellbeing, academic, social and emotional development of all learners. NEPS provides its service to schools through casework and through support and development work with schools. Individual casework involves a high level of psychologist collaboration with teachers and parents, often also working directly with the child/young person. NEPS may become involved with supporting individual students where the school’s SET team or Student Support Team feels that the involvement of the psychologist is needed. Psychologists may provide consultation in relation to appropriate therapeutic interventions to be delivered in the school setting and engage in direct work with an individual student as appropriate.
In the event that the need for a more targeted counselling or a specialised intervention is identified by the NEPS psychologist, a referral is made to an outside agency for evaluation and ongoing support. The NEPS psychologist can identify the most appropriate referral pathway and supports school with the onward referral to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Team (CAMHS), HSE Primary Care/Community Psychology teams, or an identified local community based specialist mental health service.
In addition to casework NEPS psychologists work with teachers to build their capacity. NEPS teams offer training and guidance for teachers in the provision of universal and targeted evidence-informed approaches and early intervention to promote children’s wellbeing, social, emotional and academic development. Initiatives such as the Incredible Years Social Emotional learning Programmes and the FRIENDS Resilience Programmes have been welcomed by schools and their impact positively evaluated.
A student support team is a student-focused mechanism put in place by a school in order to co-ordinate the support available for students in the school and to facilitate links to the community and other non-school support services. NEPS provides support to post primary schools in the development of Student Support Teams to coordinate supports and develop a whole-school approach to wellbeing promotion. NEPS also provides advice in the setting up or review of Student Support Teams.
Also at post primary level, counselling is a key part of the role of the Guidance Counsellor, offered on an individual or group basis as part of a developmental learning process, at moments of personal crisis but also at key transition points. Guidance allocations for all schools were increased in the 2020/21 school year. The Guidance Counsellor also identifies and supports the referral of students to external counselling agencies and professionals, as required. The Guidance Counsellor is key in developing and implementing innovative approaches to wellbeing promotion on a whole schools basis though the school’s Guidance Plan. Each post primary school currently receives an allocation in respect of guidance provision, calculated by reference to the approved enrolment.
