Durkan: Rise in severe mental health issues in children is cause for concern

Foyle SDLP MLA, Mark H Durkan, has renewed calls for mandatory mental health and well-being education for children, following reports that the number of young people experiencing a mental health crisis has risen during the Covid pandemic.

Referrals via hospital emergency departments to the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAHMS) has risen by 24 per cent since 2019-2020.

Mr Durkan, who said that the education on mental health be applied within both primary and secondary school settings, stated there was a “desperate need” for mental health training in the classroom to help pupils understand their emotions and on how to cope with them.

He said: “These startling figures further underscores the desperate need for mandatory mental health and wellbeing training within our schools to ensure children are equipped with the essential skills to understand and recognise their emotions, to build resilience required to deal with the hardships life will inevitably bring.

“Access to this type of early intervention support is important and would prevent escalating numbers of children and young people reaching crisis point.

“It is heart-breaking to learn that so many children and their families are seeking mental health support at emergency departments, feeling they have nowhere else to turn.

“The events of the pandemic have no doubt impacted on these figures however, problems around the lack of children’s mental health support existed pre 2020.

“The Department of Health failed time and time again to implement the recommendations of several reports.

“Whilst I welcome ongoing multi-agency approach to mental health and well-being currently undertaken by the Department, Public Health Agency and Education Authority, clearly it isn’t as comprehensive as it needs to be.

“I’m also cognisant that the Healthy Happy Minds pilot service, developed by the Department of Education to support therapeutic and counselling services in primary schools, is due to end next month. I’ve written to Minister McIlveen urging her to extend this provision beyond March 2022.

“These figures should be a wake-up call. No child should be facing a mental health crisis in the first place, they certainly shouldn’t be waiting in excess of nine weeks to access support. We need to do better.”

In response, a spokesperson from the Department of Health said: “The Department of Health has worked collaboratively with the Department of Education on the implementation of the Children and Young People’s Emotional Health and Wellbeing in Education Framework, which was launched in February 2021.

“The Framework is jointly funded by both departments, with the Department of Health providing £1.5m recurrently from 2021/22.

“Some key programmes have already commenced under the Framework, such as the HSCT Text-a-Nurse service and Education Authority Youth Service REACH (Resilience Education Assisting Change to Happen) programme. Other projects are currently at an advanced stage of planning, including the introduction of new CAMHS Emotional Wellbeing Teams in Schools (EWTS).

“The new EWTS service aims to promote the emotional wellbeing of children, build individual and collective resilience and most critically, provide intervention at the earliest opportunity.

“This work will involve EWTS providing an in-reach service to schools to directly support young people to help ensure unmet needs are addressed while also working collaboratively with teaching staff and other providers, such as the RISE Team, to coordinate and deliver wellbeing programmes and interventions.”

The Department of Education has been approached for comment.