Barnardo's: 'School counselling service was invaluable for us'
A mother has said she dreads to think what could have happened to her daughter if she had not received counselling through her primary school.
It comes as one of Northern Ireland's leading school counselling providers says it has to stop services due to a lack of funding.
Barnardo's Time 4 Me school counselling programme has been running for the past 17 years.
The service will stop at the end of the summer term and will not resume.
The Department of Health said that, while this year's budget has not yet been agreed, it is anticipated that "funding levels will be insufficient to maintain core health services at their existing limited level".
Caroline McMullan Hamilton says her daughter started to struggle with severe anxiety after returning to school following the Covid-19 pandemic, when she was eight.
She approached her GP and was told she was too young to attend CAMHS (child and adult mental health services).
She said she "lost a happy daughter" and was left trying to cope with a daughter who was "quiet, withdrawn and refusing to go to school".
After several sessions with the Barnardo's counsellor she said she saw "a remarkable difference".
"Her confidence came back and she started showing signs of her old self," she said.
Her daughter received 18 counselling sessions at the school.
Janet Campbell's son has a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and was on a CAMHS waiting list for help to deal with his emotions.
She described the help her son received through the counselling at school as "invaluable" and said she is not sure where she and her son would be without the intervention they received.
Pamela Jones, the principal of Belvoir Primary school in south Belfast, said it would be difficult to meet the needs of children in September when the services stopped.
The school is located in an area of social deprivation and has been using the Barnardo's services for several years.
She said without Barnardo's counsellors at the school, mental health issues that children experience would worsen.
"We have a waiting list to be seen by our school counsellor and if she is not available in September those children are not going to access that. If you go through the GP or CAMHS, those other services are well over capacity," she said.
She added that children have "to wait 18 months if they are seen at all - and that can make problems worse and that can develop into more serious problems".
In March 2023, the Department of Education scrapped its Healthy Happy Minds programme which had provided primary schools with money to pay for mental health support and counselling for pupils.
More than 19,000 children benefitted from the scheme in its first year.
Barnardo's assistant director of children's services, Michelle Harris, said the decision to stop the Time 4 Me programme was a "really difficult one", describing the service as "simply not financially sustainable".
Barnardo's NI uses voluntary funds, with the help of contributions from schools, to run their schools programme.
According to Ms Harris, the charity can no longer make up the shortfall with dwindling school budgets.
"The gap is just too big, we need long term government investment in primary school counselling," she said.
"We know waiting lists are huge for statutory services. When you can intervene early, you can actually reduce the need for some of those services later in life."
Earlier in April, BBC News NI reported Barnardo's had indicated its intention to make an interim contribution to a government redress scheme for victims of historical child abuse .
Ms Harris said Barnardo's contribution to the redress scheme was "something they have been working on for quite some time" and that it is from "a different pot of money".
She added that it "had no impact on the decision we made to services".
The Department of Health said that "unfortunately the warnings issued by the minister and department about budgetary pressures are materialising on multiple fronts.
A spokesperson said there were "sadly many very desirable and commendable projects seeking funding that is simply not available".
"While the 24/25 budget has not yet been agreed, it is anticipated that funding levels will be insufficient to maintain core health services at their existing limited level. This makes it difficult, if not impossible, to support new initiatives or expand existing initiatives," the spokesperson added.
