Carol Nolan presses for student mental-health programmes and USI collaboration

I'd like to thank you all for your presentation and certainly I have read through the notes and there's several points that I would fully agree with I know the cost of living crisis and indeed the accommodation crisis is putting extra mental strain on third level students there's no doubt about that but I'm just wondering as well like is there any particular programs that are currently in place that are working well and that could be rolled out to a greater degree or maybe across all colleges that you know I suppose what I'm asking for is an individual sample or is there any kind of a case study done where a particular program has worked well that could be applied elsewhere as a template and also I'd just like to know I know from meeting USI representatives every year in fairness they have flagged this with us TDs and senators that mental health is a massive issue and they would be very much involved with the students and doing what they can to fill gaps but I'm wondering how they can to fill gaps but I'm wondering have you much collaboration with USI and the student unions because I think that would be key you know in terms of I suppose improving things and putting preventative measures in place and collaboration as I say can yield results and I suppose my final point is that you know we do need I suppose an awareness campaign and you know to a certain degree there are many students who still feel that the stigma is associated with mental health and while we have made strides and progress unfortunately that stigma is still there and is there any national campaign and that you're involved in in trying to raise more awareness and and take away that that whole stigma thanks I might just speak firstly with co-design if you so wish so it's the involvement of students okay so I might just start with that one I think anything to be successful in the area of student mental health requires working with students in terms of what they would like to see for their supports and so we can provide professional services to our counselling service and Tress can speak about that in a moment and but also we need to also understand from a student what prevents them talk to them and actually find out what are the types of services that they would need there like there will be some students who just who will struggle and need into short intervention then there will be other students who have more significant need and then there will be others with with psychiatric diagnosis so we've arranged so you were asking about so I can answer the two together you're asking do we have a program that kind of we could universally roll out in so in my view that's probably not likely and in that students differ and students you know if you go from mild to moderate to severe to very severe so what one student is very severe what will work for them may be very different to somebody who has who is presenting with a mild issue that may very need a very short intervention or maybe just need the support of somebody back near their their their their actual their college or their school where they're doing their their their their their their program so I think having a universal solution is probably not likely because they are unique and so that's one one thing but I do think raising awareness is very important and raising awareness is probably best done working with students the students union usi on on what and talking to them about and co-producing something that has resonance so if you want to reach students you need to actually engage them in what it is you're actually trying to provide there's very little there's no point in us being over here saying this is what you need we need to ask them what do you need when do you need it and how best would we do that okay thanks thanks very much and just respond to your questions there deputy and you have a lot of collaboration and from from psychological counselors we meet with usi regularly and we've also work on the ha connecting for life and working group which which is kind of overseen a lot of the the sector-wide funding and and and delivery in terms of the program and in terms of what senator dolan reference together all is an evidence evidence-based anonymous peer support platform so that was you know on back of six months of research into but you know what could be um a really beneficial uh service that would augment and work alongside the counseling services but for students at different levels of of intervention as barbara mentions for some students it might just be that those um normative transitional stressors and strains and finance and etc those sort of things and but also it caters for those with more severe mental health difficulties in that it's clinically moderated just 24 mental 24 hour mental health professionals on that platform and they are trained to to escalate uh to emergency services where they need to and then also action then with the counseling services the further um resources and treatment that somebody might need um and and and in terms of working with i suppose the usi and um delivery of of other programs that have been a benefit um the text support service 50808 that was launched in 2020 actually in september 2020 so it's a keyword partnership with the higher education institutions so we can get high level data back at the end of each year around the usage around that now that started pre-pandemic pre-march 2020 but by god we were very um happy to have it when we all went into lockdown and isolation um and and and that was in response to the usi survey and that was launched in 2020 which indicated that that i think around 26 percent of students uh wanted a text-based support service uh provided by the institution and just under 27 wanted a text-based support service provided by an external service at the institution and i suppose our identification of 50808 because it's a hsc service that we we promote and endorse and kind of spoke to both of them at the time the other sector-wide thing i suppose that the program that's been really beneficial and has been specific suicide suicide intervention training called the collaborative assessment and management of suicidality and again this is on backup funding from the hea and the hsc joint funding so we were able to train 235 counsellors across the country in student counselling services um in terms of that specific uh focus on suicidal risk and how to reduce suicidal risk and work with suicidal students uh on campus thanks very much okay thanks yeah and i would also say like in our colleges we would have like dedicated student support officers and dedicated student counsellors we've noticed a huge increase since before cover like one of our colleges said 157 percent increase in the demand for um counseling services from their from their institution and i i think engagement with students is very very important to see what they what they need what they want so we would regularly do surveys in in relation to finding out that part and we would do a lot of mental health promotion right in relation to the together all we aren't included in that initial pilot but i'm trusting ourselves have a touch base and are discussing and seeing how we can get be part of these initiatives in future at the moment we seem to be excluded from a lot of the national campaigns a lot of really brilliant national campaigns i must say and we we want to put our hand up and say that we'd like to be involved in those as well okay thanks very much