Pieta House initiative aims to build resilience in young teens

Over 5,000 students in secondary schools nationwide will take part in the Pieta House  ‘Resilience Academy’, a unique three stages programme offered over six weeks. The aim is to equip Second Year students with the emotional resilience tools with the hope that they won’t need the services of Pieta House as adults.

Brian Higgins, CEO of Pieta House, said; “The Resilience Academy was designed last year to significantly reduce the number of deaths by suicide of school children in Ireland.” Higgins continued; “there has been a 22% increase in the number of under 18s presenting to Pieta House due to suicide or self-harm in the last two years. This year to date, over 2,025 teenagers received treatment at Pieta House.”

Schools can bring challenging situations for all children. This is particularly the case for students in the early years of secondary school. They are in a new school setting and they are beginning preparation for the Junior Certificate. Both of these events can be stressful and for this reason, Pieta House has developed a programme for Second Year students that will teach them to better recognise their emotions, provide resources to cope with stressful situations and encourage them to seek help from the appropriate sources should they need it.

The Resilience Academy schools programme is evidence based and has been developed from a review of highly successful school programmes internationally. This six-week programme has been proven to increase young people’s resilience, hope for the future, ability to cope with upset feelings and connection to their school.

For more information on the programme and to enquire about running the programme in your school, visit Pieta House Resilience Academy or call the Pieta House Educations and Training Team on 01 458 5490 or email resilience@pieta.ie.