Change the Future - UNICEF Ireland

Change the future
UNICEF is a global organisation, working in more than 190 countries to help build a world in which children’s rights are
respected, their needs are provided for, and they have a voice in shaping the world around them. We believe in changing the
world for children in Ireland too. UNICEF advocates for all young people to ensure that they have every opportunity to grow,
develop and contribute to our society. We are working to ensure that young people in Ireland are heard and that their rights
are realised.
This is why we believe the Change the Future: Experiencing Youth in Contemporary Ireland Report Series is vitally important –
because it is founded exclusively on the views of young people. Change the Future is about the voice of young people living
in Ireland, telling us their story, in their words.
This Research Project was coordinated by UNICEF Ireland.
The research, data and findings reported in Change the Future: Experiencing Youth in Contemporary Ireland: Mental Health
was completed and compiled in December 2010. UNICEF would like to express our gratitude to our research partners MCCP,
and The Base Ballyfermot. Further details of the methodology and background to the Report are available through the
offices of UNICEF Ireland: www.unicef.ie
Any part of the Report may be freely reproduced using the following citation or reference: UNICEF Ireland, Change the
Future: Experiencing Adolescence in Contemporary Ireland: Mental Health January 2011. The views expressed in this Report
represent those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the policies or views of UNICEF.
Photography: The photographs of young people used within this report for illustration are images posed by models and do
not depict actual situations, or reflect the themes of the Report.
UNICEF Ireland,
33 Lower Ormond Quay, Dublin 1,
Republic of Ireland.
Tel: (+353) 01 878 3000
Fax: (+353) 01 878 6655
Web: www.unicef.ie
Email: info@unicef.ie
As the Changing the Future Report Series continues, this
second report focuses on adolescent experiences of
mental health, and the associated issues and pressures to
which young people are being exposed.
There are many disturbing and heart breaking findings
in this report. The pain that many young people are
experiencing was very evident not only in the statistics
but also in the comments made by the many brave, young
people who took part in this survey. Our findings show
that many young people experience serious mental health
issues at some stage. Yet very few of them receive any
professional help and as a result many experience ongoing
problems.
Young people have the capacity to help us reach the
solutions to these challenges. Through their compassion,
determination and kindness young people all across
Ireland continue to reach out to peers experiencing
difficulty every day. The young people who chose to take
part in this Research continue this tradition, by sharing
their stories with UNICEF, they are ensuring that we can
act to support young people who we know may come to
experience those same challenges in the future.
It is crucial that all of us in Ireland break down the
stigmas and taboos that surround adolescent mental
health. Confronting these issues is the first step towards
promoting and ensuring positive mental health for
all young people, and supporting and assisting those
young people who experience difficulties, to return to
equilibrium as quickly and conclusively as possible.
As a society we must all ask serious questions about our
ability to reach out to young people who are experiencing
these difficulties. We must question the quality of our
efforts to offer support to young people in crisis.
We must strive to ensure that every single young person
who needs our companionship, our understanding and
our assistance knows that we are here for them, and
knows the avenues through which they can draw down
that support, in a safe, protective, confidential and nonjudgemental
way.
The right to good health, both physical and mental is not
something that young people in Ireland should have to
aspire to. It is something to which they are entitled, and
which we are beholden to secure on their behalf.
We must do more to ensure that when it comes to positive
mental health, our children know that they have nothing to
hide, that there are sympathetic and supportive avenues
to which they can turn, that they no child has to face these
challenges alone.
Melanie Verwoerd
Executive Director, UNICEF Ireland.
Changing the Future: Experiencing Adolescence in Contemporary Ireland: Mental Health. UNICEF Changing the Future 3.