Presentation to the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children from Comhairle na nÓg National Executive 22 nd November

2 What is Comhairle na nÓg? Local child and youth council for each County Development Board. Funded and overseen by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs. Consists of young people (12-18) Each Comhairle na nÓg hosts an open AGM where local young people decide on what issues their Comhairle should work on.

3 Dáil na nÓg 2011 Dáil na nÓg is the annual national youth parliament for young people. 200 delegates are elected through their local Comhairle na nÓg. The top recommendation from Dáil na nÓg 2011 was the need to find ways for young people to influence decision-making in the Dáil, the Seanad and local authorities

4 CNN National Executive Each Comhairle na nÓg elects one delegate to become a member of the National Executive. The role of the Executive is to follow up on recommendations made at Dail na nÓg and at our local Comhairle na nÓg AGMs.

We are here today to strengthen the voices of young people through showcasing the work that is done by the different comhairlí around the country. Currently there are 14 comhairlí working on various mental health initiatives and 7 comhairlí working on SPHE/RSE. Our Aim Today 5

Why are we here? To discuss the topics of: –Sexual Health; and –Mental Health To represent the work of Comhairle na Óg around the country and make recommendations to the Committee on their behalf. 7 Comhairle na nÓg are working on issues related to sexual health, including Social Personal and Health Education and Relationships and Sexuality Education and sexual health services 14 Comhairle na nÓg are working on the various mental health initiatives 6

Sexual Health Key Issues Raised by Comhairle na nÓg: The majority of Comhairlí feel the teaching of RSE/SPHE is inadequate and inconsistent More STI testing clinics are needed for young people

8 Sexual Health Education A number of Comhairlí are currently working on the quality of teaching in relation to RSE and SPHE. Young people in Comhairle na nÓg feel that the teaching of RSE is inconsistent and the quality of teaching varies from school to school. There is no SPHE course for the senior cycle and it is at the discretion of the teacher/school as to what topics are covered in class. This is a topic which has also been worked on by a former Dáil na nÓg Council.

9 Young People’s Research on Sex Education The 2009 Dáil na nÓg Council carried out a survey on the implementation of SPHE and RSE in secondary schools. Overview: –94 schools in 13 counties took part in the RSE survey. –63% of students surveyed said they never had an RSE class. –In 50% of schools surveyed RSE was timetabled into Religion classes. –91% of young people felt that learning RSE in school was either important or very important to their education.

Donegal Comhairle na nÓg Donegal has worked on the topic of sexual health in schools. They have recently compiled questions to survey students in the Donegal schools to see to what extent the sexual health element of RSE is being taught in Donegal. They were looking at the best way to circulate the surveys to the students to get an honest answer without an influence from teachers and principals 10

11 STI Testing Clinics Several Comhairlí are currently working on making STI testing clinics available to young people and providing educational leaflets for them.

Roscommon Comhairle na nÓg In Roscommon have been working on sexual health for the past year. They have developed a leaflet which contains common facts and fictions surrounding STIs. This leaflet should be released within the next few months. Roscommon are also campaigning for funding for a mobile STI testing facility. 12

Solutions – SPHE/RSE : Young People need a consistent Relationships and Sexuality Education Curriculum that is the same in every second-level school. This can be achieved if Social Personal and Health Education teacher-training is made mandatory, to ensure an acceptable teaching standard. Leaving Cycle Students need more Relationships and Sexuality Education Education. 13

Solutions – STI Clinics Young People need information about services. Young People also need access to services locally. More services are needed.

15 Mental Health This year 14 Comhairle na nÓg are dealing with topics relating to mental health. Mental health is an issue discussed regularly by all Comhairle na nÓg across the country. The issues that continuously come up in this area are: –the lack of mental health services –the lack of awareness among teenagers about mental health services

Mental health services The Comhairle na nÓg National Executive met with Martin Rogan, HSE National Director for Mental Health. After our meeting with him, it was clear that there are mental health services for young people, but they don’t know about them or how to access them. In order to combat this issue there are various Comhairlí working on it around the country including Louth and Limerick City. You can read about all the Comhairle na nÓg mental health initiatives in the National Showcase Programme.

Limerick City Comhairle na nÓg Limerick City are working on promoting positive mental health. They plan to develop a pack containing resources for young people including information on local services and coping mechanisms to deal with stress. As part of this they gave out a survey to around 200 young people to find out what stresses them, how they deal with this stress and services that they know of in the local area. 17

Louth Comhairle na nÓg Louth is also working on promoting positive mental health. To combat this issue they developed a mental health phone application. Gives hints and advice on dealing with Mental Health issues. First Mental Health application for young people in Ireland. Quick, easy and free to download and share. 18

Summary and Solutions - Mental Health What we would like to achieve today is to stress that while there are services in place they are not distributed evenly around the country. There are areas where there is a lack of services. For us, a lack of awareness is a more prominent issue and we want an increased effort in publicising the available facilities to young people 19

20 Conclusion We want you to know about the work of Comhairle na nÓg. We want to make you aware of how important these issues are to young people around the country. We want to ask you to contact your local Comhairlí in order to learn about the work they are doing on these issues Please take into consideration the opinion of young people into every future decision you make

Thanks Thank you for your time and for listening to our presentation. We’d like to open the floor to any questions you might have. 21