Brady calls for action on Bullying and Mental Health

Statement by Peter Brady, Fine Gael Local Election Candidate, Lucan/Palmerstown/Quarryvale.

The issues of bullying in schools, mental health services and suicide (especially among young males) are inter-related” says Peter Brady, Fine Gael Local Election candidate in Lucan/Palmerstown/Quarryvale. “These issues are so serious and affect so many people that they must be made central to the political agenda. Political representatives have responsibilities as human beings to put aside differences and work across party lines to identify the best means of addressing these troubling issues and then secure the necessary funding.

A pilot research project, carried out in 42 primary schools in Co. Donegal by the Education Department of Trinity College, showed that a multi-faceted whole school approach involving intervention and prevention work at the community, school, classroom and individual levels could significantly reduce bullying. The key elements in the Donegal programme were; • Training of a network of teachers who in turn trained other teachers, parents, pupils and Boards of Management in identifying and countering bullying • Provision of a Resource Pack to teachers
• An Information Leaflet for parents
• Working with pupils to create a climate in schools and classrooms that did not accept bullying behaviours.

Surveys carried out in the pilot schools before and after the project showed that, after the project, there was a significant reduction in reports of being bullied, increased efforts by teachers to stop bullying, increased readiness of pupils to intervene when someone in their age group was being bullied and more pupils unwilling to participate in bullying. The project is so successful that the Norwegian Government has adopted it on a national scale. Unfortunately, it has not yet been extended nationwide to schools in Ireland.

On the wider issue of mental health, Mental Health Ireland (MHI) recently showed that the share of the health budget devoted to mental illness has almost halved over the past two decades. The Government has also failed to implement the 80 recommendations of the Task Force on Suicide published in 1998. The effects of this official neglect are being seen here in Lucan and Palmerstown, where a number of people I have canvassed have spoken to me about the lack of mental health services in this area” Peter Brady concluded.

21st May 2004