CARING FOR YOUNG MINDS IN IRELAND Sinead McGilloway, Michael
Donnelly Ireland Psychology Medical Journal, 2000, pages 114-116
"Society...has a choice whether or not to acknowledge the
importance of the mental health of its children [and young
people] and invest in it appropriately or not...if we are to
change things, action is needed now." Recent years have seen an
upsurge of interest among policymakers, researchers and
practitioners -throughout the UK and elsewhere - in the growing
number of young people aged under 25 who are developing mental
health problems. The research evidence indicates that
approximately one in five children and adolescents have mental
ill health, a figure all the more disturbing in view of further
evidence suggesting that the majority rarely reach special
services. Recently, the Mental Health Foundation reported that
approximately two million young people under 20 in the UK have a
mental health problem, the range and severity of which tends to
increase dramatically with age. The kinds