A Mental Health Text Line has been launched by the Union of Students in Ireland.
The service aims to connect texters with a trained volunteer.
Research found that amongst students who participated in the USI National Report on Student Mental Health in Third Level Education, just under a third had received a formal diagnosis of their mental health. Most of these students received a diagnosis of depression [74%] and anxiety [73.5%].
USI President, and Wexford-native, Lorna Fitzpatrick says;
“This is such an important resource for students, anxiety and depression is something that an uncountable amount of students suffer from on a day to day basis. In the USI National Report on Student Mental Health in Third Level Education, we found that 34.4% of students were put on a waiting list for counselling services for at least one week, this text line is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. While a fifth [20.9%] of students reported not having someone to talk to about personal and emotional difficulties.
We encourage all students to seek help and practice daily self care, as third level education is such a trying time between college deadlines, study, part-time work and maintaining family and friend relationships.”
