Funding for student mental health services announced by Minister Simon Harris on Monday still leaves Ireland far off the internationally recommended ‘safe and ethical’ ratio of students to counsellors, says the Union of Students in Ireland.
While any funding for student mental health services is important and needed, USI says we must consider the actual services being provided to students, who have been shown time and time again to be, as Minister Harris says “facing mental health challenges like no other” generation.
The €5 million funding announced is expected to keep student mental health services at their current level.
Colleges and universities in Ireland currently have just one counsellor for every 2,240 students, even though it is recommended by the International Accreditation of Counseling Services that there should be one counsellor for every 1,000 to 1,500 students.
USI Vice President for Welfare, Colette Murphy said: “We had been in touch with Students’ Unions and student counselling services across the country in relation to this funding and when this announcement would come. We know there was a lot of worry about the fact the announcement was later than usual and about what the funding would be. And while we’re glad to see that it hasn’t been reduced from last year, we are disappointed that it is still far off what is required.”
In conversations with Students’ Unions officers from around the country, USI has been informed that one college service has had to reduce the number of ’emergency appointments’ for students from six to two, and others have seen students not willing to avail of services because they think they are too busy.
In its Pre-Budget Submission, and in a statement on World Suicide Prevention Day in September, USI called for Government to increase this funding to €11.5 million in order to reach safe counsellor to student ratios to help combat the mental health crisis currently affecting our young people, including our students.
Colette continued: “These aren’t USI recommended ratios, they are the internationally accepted figures. And I think if anyone considers the struggles young people currently face and how many people they know that suffer from mental health issues, they would not think that one counsellor for every 2,240 students is enough. Also, it is not fair for Government to expect these services to operate from year to year, only finding out in mid-December what funding they are getting for the following year. It is practically impossible for them to plan or to hire counsellors that will sign up to that uncertainty. It’s past time that student mental health services are properly planned for, and resourced.”