{"id":15803,"date":"2015-10-20T22:34:53","date_gmt":"2015-10-20T22:34:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/?p=15803"},"modified":"2015-10-20T22:35:54","modified_gmt":"2015-10-20T22:35:54","slug":"15803","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/15803\/","title":{"rendered":"UL counselling waiting list to clear up to Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"University
University of Limerick Head of Counselling, Declan Aherne<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

By Tom\u00e1s Heneghan<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The University of Limerick\u2019s counselling service is to gain a new counsellor in order to help clear the current backlog of students on the counselling waiting list.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The announcement was made less than a month after the University\u2019s Students\u2019 Union raised the issue with the Minister for Eduction and Skills, Jan O\u2019Sullivan.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Welcoming the increased resources, ULSU President, Colin Clarke labeled the mental health services in Irish third level institutions as \u201cseverely underfunded\u201d and said he was glad to hear of the change now being implemented in UL.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cULSU were glad to hear that there has been an increase in funding in the counselling department in UL in order to tackle the growing waiting lists we have,\u201d Mr Clarke explained.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

However he criticised the temporary nature of the move and said the change would only act as a \u201cshort term solution to a long term problem\u201d.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He added: \u201cWhilst we have successfully lobbied over the last fourth months for an increase in counselling hours, we must ensure we find a long-term solution to this nationwide problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Head of Counselling at the University, Declan Aherne said he was \u201cdelighted\u201d with the increased funding to help what he called \u201cthe continuously extending waiting list\u201d.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cMore and more students are seeking counselling each week and it is heartening that the University authorities recognise this growing need and have responded accordingly.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cWe will now do our utmost to ensure that all stduents get seen during this term,\u201d explained Mr Aherne.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The improved resources will now see an additional 20 hours of counselling sessions per week which aims to address the waiting lists up to Christmas.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mr Clarke explained: \u201cOver the last five years the number of students who are reaching out and seeking help from the counselling department has doubled in UL, yet there has been no increase in funding.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He commended the national effort in addressing mental health services, particularly awareness programmes such as \u2018Please Talk\u2019 and \u2018Mind your mental health\u2019, and acknowledged the positives of an increase in people using these services.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI do not see the increase in numbers as a negative, rather as a positive. It\u2019s fantastic to see more and more people making the courageous decision to seek help and to admit they are not feeling ok. We must ensure that we do not let those people down by saying thanks for coming in but we don\u2019t have an appointment for you for three weeks,\u201d Mr Clarke added.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s incredibly important that we revisit the model for mental health funding in Irish third level institutions. It\u2019s statistically proven that counselling can dramatically decrease the student drop-out rate.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cSo not only is it the morally correct thing to do, it also makes sense in terms of business. Retention rates are hugely important to universities so why wouldn\u2019t you invest in the welfare of students?\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mr Clarke also called on all third-level institutions in Ireland dealing with similar waiting list issues to \u201cfollow suit\u201d and to put in place an interim solution as UL has now done.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cYes it may mean an increase in expenditure but it will not break the bank. It will cost UL just under \u20ac13,000 in order to ensure we provide functioning counselling services between now and Christmas. Surely that money will be well spent if it saves just one person.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/path><\/svg><\/i> \"Loading\"<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"reddit\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  By Tom\u00e1s Heneghan   The University of Limerick\u2019s counselling service is to gain a new counsellor in order to help clear the current backlog of students on the counselling waiting list.   The announcement was made less than a month after the University\u2019s Students\u2019 Union raised the issue with the Minister for Eduction and […]<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/path><\/svg><\/i> \"Loading\"<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15804,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"a3_pvc":{"activated":true,"total_views":18,"today_views":0},"views":2179,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/declan_35.gif","wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15803"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15806,"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15803\/revisions\/15806"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}