Trinity will receive €214,000 for mental health supports as part of a €5 million package for higher education institutions announced by the government today.
The funding will be used to recruit additional student counsellors and assistant psychologists, implement the framework for consent in higher education institutions and implement the soon to be published National Student Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Framework.
An additional €3 million has been added to the existing €2 million fund for student mental health supports in response to coronavirus. The funding comes at a crucial time for students facing uncertainty as colleges plan to reopen next month.
In addition, University College Dublin and Dublin City University will receive €356,000 and €294,000 respectively. TU Dublin has been allocated the largest amount of €590,000, which will be spread across its three campuses.
According to the Higher Education Authority (HEA), higher education institutions will be contacted in the coming week with details of allocations and the conditions attached to the use of the funds for student mental health supports.
In a press statement, Higher Education Minister Simon Harris said: “The number one health issue for young people in Ireland today is concerns or worries around their mental health. These concerns have been compounded by the isolation and uncertainty brought forward by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
“For students”, he said, “the college experience has been different this year from ever before. Students have had to adjust to remote learning and carried out without face to face support from their college or their peers”.
“For these reasons, I have sought to support student counselling services, key mental health interventions and the provision of a safe, respectful, supportive and positive environment in our higher education institutions.”
“This will help us support students as they return to college in this Covid world”, Harris added.
In a press statement, Chief Executive Officer of the HEA Alan Wall said: “This additional support, being provided by the Minister, is a welcome boost to a higher education sector that enrols in the region of 55,000 new students each year.”
“These young and not-so-young students engage in higher education at a sometimes-challenging time of change and progression in their lives. This is a sizeable proportion of our population, and while our health and community services work to support everyone, there can be environmentally specific or transitional issues that arise for both current and new students in higher education.”
“We will be encouraging institutional leaders to use these new resources to foreground student supports, to build on existing capacity, and to provide better bridges between the various service providers locally, regionally and nationally”, he added.
