Need for guidance counsellors in schools

Sir, – The Institute of Guidance Counsellors has in excess of 1,400 members and it is rare to see an article that reflects the lived professional experience of so many of our members.

Your recent piece titled “When Schools Cope with the Suicide of a Student” (May 12th) highlights the challenges faced by the whole school community, when a young person dies by suicide. The overwhelming grief and sadness, and fear for others, creates a very challenging environment for school students, staff, management and the wider community.

Recent reports including “A Piece of My Mind” press release from the Ombudsman for Children (May 5th), shines a much-needed light on the crisis that is youth mental health in Ireland.

We would like to take this opportunity to highlight that there is the provision for a guidance counsellor in every second-level school in the country and we are well placed to support the school community and young people. However, we are finding that with increased demands for subject teaching and career classes, that the hours allowed for personal counselling are insufficient.

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Furthermore, there is great inequality among schools with the allocation of guidance counselling hours relying on the management team’s discretion.

We commend the journalist and Dr Clare Finegan for their brave and frank account of a subject that is, unfortunately, becoming more prevalent.

We continue to advocate for our members and young people and request the Department of Education to adequately fund the allocation of guidance counsellors in second-level schools, and show commitment to the young people of Ireland and their families in the allocation of resources and services. – Yours, etc,

TADHG CROWLEY,

President,

CATRÍONA RODGERS,

Vice-President,

Institute of Guidance Counsellors.