Breda O’Brien: The Leaving Cert Class of 2020 are still dealing with the Covid shock

Remember the Leaving Cert class of 2020, the ones who ended up not sitting a Leaving Cert due to Covid? Anecdotally, many of those who made it to college are not doing so well. It is not just those who are now in third year. Even before Covid-19, there were alarming signs of deterioration in young people’s mental health.

For example, UCD and Jigsaw surveyed some 19,000 young people for My World Survey 2019 (MWS2), a follow-up to My World Survey 2012 (MSW1).

Levels of reported severe anxiety in young adults (aged 18 to 25) increased from 15% in the first survey to 26% in the second. 14% of young adults fell into the severe and very severe categories for depression in 2012, whereas it had risen to 21% by 2019.

There are some young people who were faring even worse, those whom MSW2 call the “seldom heard” – those in Youthreach, Colleges of Further Education or those with a disability.

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There was also some good news. Levels of bullying had fallen and more young people reported having “one good adult” in their lives, a factor considered vital for good mental health.

The obvious cultural change between the two surveys would appear to be social media, but MSW2′s nuanced findings suggest that spending less than two hours a day online correlated with better mental health while spending more than three hours correlated with more depression and anxiety.

[ The lost Leaving Cert class of 2020: No debs, sports days, awards or exams ]

[ Leaving Cert 2020 results: Covid-19 brings anti-climactic end to school years ]

And then came Covid-19, a global pandemic with an unprecedented closing down of society. Remember those coffins piling up in Italy? How could anxiety levels not rise?

If current third years in college and further education institutes are doing badly, it is hardly surprising. Third year is challenging at the best of times

If social media usage is an important metric for mental health, social media then became the primary means of communication.

Left hanging

The class of 2020 were left hanging for months, uncertain as to whether the Leaving Cert would go ahead, and the subject of mockery for their inflated grades when it did not. Their first year in college was mostly conducted online, too.

Although in some ways sitting the Leaving Cert constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, nonetheless, losing out on the normal scaffolding and support provided by in-person interactions with peers and teachers during a stressful time often delayed important developmental milestones. Students still expect the same of themselves as earlier cohorts did.

So if current third years in college and further education institutes are doing badly, it is hardly surprising. Third year is challenging at the best of times, not least because in many colleges results start counting towards the final degree.

A raft of studies internationally testify to the pandemic’s impact. In a 2022 ESRI study, lead author Emer Smyth described the findings as “stark” as they indicate a further deterioration in mental health.

One French study of 45,000 university students 15 months after the pandemic found high prevalence rates of anxiety, depression, perceived stress, PTSD, and suicidal ideation. The authors state it suggests severe long-lasting consequences associated with the pandemic.

TCD student counsellor Chuck Rashleigh, a member of the service’s senior management team, reports that the numbers seeking help have jumped 36 per cent from 2021 to 2022.

Aisling O’Grady, Head of Student Advisory Service, UCD, says that there has been a 14 per cent increase in counselling appointments from 20/21 to 21/22. The number of interactions with student advisers also increased by 15 per cent, while 25 per cent of GP time is devoted to meeting students experiencing mental health challenges.

Since 2020, the Government has invested an additional €10 million in mental health support, which is greatly appreciated by the higher education sector. Waiting times for appointments have fallen but are still longer than is optimal. Psychological Counsellors in Higher Education, Ireland (PCHEI) have been campaigning for years for an increase in the ratio of counsellors to students. In Ireland, it is close to 1:2,500, whereas internationally, best practice suggests 1:1000 (which, honestly, still seems low).

Signs of distress

A recent Joint Oireachtas Committee report on mental health supports endorsed ring-fenced, “multi-annual, core funding” to reach PCHEI’s target, and also making student counselling more attractive as a career by giving more long-term contracts. Precarity in a counselling career is hardly conducive to good student services.

Parents can help enormously, mostly by being aware of signs of distress such as low mood, poor sleep or an increase in obsessive behaviour. It also means not being afraid to address sensitively the mental health elephant in the room.

Contacting student services on your child’s behalf can also help. Colleges want to know when students are struggling

Rashleigh suggests that for many parents, the first step is to address their own anxieties about their young-adult child so that they can be in a more compassionate, empathetic and calm frame of mind when approaching the young person.

Contacting student services on your child’s behalf can also help. Colleges want to know when students are struggling. So many parents are terrified of being helicopter parents, but as Rashleigh says, it is not helicopter parenting but concerned parenting to advocate for your child when they cannot do it for themselves.

Missed or delayed developmental milestones are not insuperable, but first we have to acknowledge that they exist and secondly, channel ring-fenced funding toward the supports that our battered young people so badly need.