{"id":527092,"date":"2026-07-01T05:49:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T05:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/527092\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T05:49:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T05:49:09","slug":"demand-for-youth-mental-health-services-accelerating-at-unprecedented-pace-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/527092\/","title":{"rendered":"Demand for youth mental health services accelerating at \u2018unprecedented pace\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A record number of young people were referred to youth mental health <\/a>charity Jigsaw last year, with the organisation warning demand is accelerating at an \u201cunprecedented pace\u201d.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Jigsaw <\/a>will publish its 2025 annual report, which shows the organisation had 11,064 referrals in 2025 \u2013 a 23 per cent increase on the previous year and the highest number in its history. <\/p>\n

The surge has continued into 2026, with referrals rising by a further 33 per cent to 3,909 in the first quarter alone, which Jigsaw said signals a \u201cclear and accelerating trend <\/a>in youth mental health need\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, the charity\u2019s report also noted some positive outcomes. National waiting times halved from eight weeks to four, and there was an 89 per cent satisfaction rate among young people and families.<\/p>\n

The charity also engaged with 623 post-primary schools, representing more than 80 per cent of secondary schools nationwide.<\/p>\n

Jigsaw chief executive Dr Joseph Duffy said demand is not only at record levels but is accelerating rapidly and the scale and urgency of this is significant<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cDemand at this level cannot be absorbed indefinitely without sustained support. If we are to protect access, maintain strong clinical outcomes\/improved mental health for young people, and continue reaching young people early, ongoing and sustained State investment will be critical,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe public trusts us to deliver for their young people, let\u2019s not lose this due to short-term thinking and not planning for their future.\u201d <\/p>\n

Alana Powell, a youth mental health advocate <\/a>at Jigsaw, said she contacted the charity during the first year of her psychology degree.<\/p>\n

Commuting from North Co Dublin to Galway for college, the 21-year-old said loneliness was something with which she was struggling at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very lonely and I felt like no one could relate to what I was experiencing … I was the sort of person who would bottle that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Powell said loneliness is something many people her age are experiencing and that there can be many different causes behind it. <\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe you\u2019ve had distressing experiences with your friends or bullying or the fear of mistake, or you know if you have a friend group and you\u2019re not being included … that can all be very lonely … it can develop into other, bigger problems,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Eoin McEvoy, another youth mental health advocate, said the causes of young people\u2019s mental distress can be personal issues like family, friends or home life. But they can also be the more global crises.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re seeing so much global instability and uncertainty in young people. There\u2019s so much going on in the world at the moment, politically, climate, economic pressures and the cost of living,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A record number of young people were referred to youth mental health charity Jigsaw last year, with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":527093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[103,61,60,410,72503,117288],"class_list":["post-527092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mental-health","tag-mental-health-commission","tag-mental-health-criminal-law-review-board"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=527092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/527093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}