Suicide attempts

It was shocking to note that one in nine young people in Scotland have attempted suicide as outlined in Glasgow University’s recent study (The Scotsman, 10 May).

The importance of prevention and early intervention, which is cheap, effective and cost saving, cannot be underestimated. This includes increased investment in child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) as well as greater education and support within schools.

All secondary schools must have a qualified and appropriately experienced counsellor, providing support to troubled and/or distressed children and young people, including those with mental health difficulties. Scotland is currently the only UK country with no national strategy for schoolbased counselling services.

Children and young people in Scotland are subject to a “postcode lottery”of access to support and it has been estimated that more than 250,000 young people have no access to school-based counselling.

Counselling services are guaranteed in all secondary schools in Northern Ireland and Wales. In Wales the vast majority of children and young people who received counselling (88 per cent) did not require any form of onward referral once counselling sessions had been completed.

Investing a fraction of the mental health budget on school-based counselling services helps to keep children in school and avoid unnecessary and often stigmatising mental health diagnoses, as well as reducing the burden on the already stretched and costly CAMHS provision – the cost of five sessions of counselling is equivalent to just one contact with CAMHS.

With a shocking number of young lives at risk in Scotland, the figures make it clear that there is no time to waste in implementing guaranteed school counselling.

Scottish Children’s Services Coalition: TOM MCGHEE, chairman, Spark of Genius; DUNCAN DUNLOP, chief executive, Who Cares? Scotland; STUART JACOB, director, Falkland House School; NIALL KELLY, managing director, Young Foundations; LYNN BELL, CEO, Love Learning Scotland, Queen Street, Edinburgh