Sir, – Youth mental health is a key election issue, especially among young voters and parents of children seeking mental health support.
While encouraging to see media coverage of this topic in recent days, what is crystal-clear to us in Jigsaw, the National Centre for Youth Mental Health, is that increased investment, improved integration and a sharper focus on early intervention are now needed to make a meaningful difference to the mental health and wellbeing of Ireland’s young people.
The challenges are well documented – our youth mental health system is vastly under-resourced, over-stretched and in urgent need of reform, with a greater focus needed on early intervention and prevention.
As the polling day fast approaches, collectively we have an opportunity to address the issues at hand.
We need to increase the investment in youth mental health. We need to better leverage the unique contribution of our community and voluntary organisations in implementing youth mental health supports and we need to better support mental health prevention and support programmes for our young people where they live, learn, work and play.
International research has shown that primary care prevention and early intervention services, like Jigsaw, can help to reduce high levels of psychological distress.
And it has been Jigsaw’s experience over the past 18 years that there are significant numbers of young people in Ireland whose mental health needs have been and can be appropriately supported through early intervention.
Investment in keeping people well, rather than waiting until they are very unwell is key here – it will save money, but more importantly, it has the potential to save young lives.
As we go to the polls we have choices to make. At Jigsaw, we ask your make your vote count for our young people.
Collectively, we must remain ambitious and bold about changing the current paradigm in approaches to mental health.
We must continue to inspire change, and to be pioneering, disruptive, brave and determined in the realisation of a shared vision of an Ireland where every young person’s mental health is valued and supported. – Yours, etc,
Dr JOSEPH DUFFY ,
CEO,
Jigsaw – The National Centre for Youth Mental Health,
(Adjunct Professor, School of Psychology, UCD),
Dublin 2.