Tyrone consultant warns about anxiety ‘epidemic’ among children

A TYRONE-BASED mental health consultant has described the rise in school-based anxiety among children as an emerging ‘epidemic’.

Bronagh Starrs, a Tattyreagh-based psychotherapist and expert in contemporary adolescence, said the number of pupils suffering from the condition has been steadily increasing – particularly since the Covid-19 pandemic.

School-based anxiety – also referred to as school refusal or emotionally based school avoidance (EBSA) – is a condition where a child experiences intense fear, worry, or distress about attending school, often leading to frequent or prolonged absences.

“There isn’t new data in the North in relation to the extent of the problem,” Mrs Starrs said. “However, in the South, data for the 2022/2023 school year showed that more than 110,000 primary and 65,000 post-primary pupils missed 20 or more days of school.”

Speaking about the scale of the issue, she recalled a conversation with a principal during a talk in Co Tipperary.

“They told me there were 470 students enrolled in their secondary school, and on any given day, around 100 were off with anxiety-related issues,” she said.

According to Mrs Starrs, the problem has only worsened since the pandemic, when many children missed out on vital social development and became accustomed to being out of the classroom environment.

“There was already an emerging epidemic before Covid, but the pandemic accelerated it,” she said.

“Because so many young people became conditioned to being out of school – and because they missed out on key early social development – there is now a serious problem. It’s in every school, primary and secondary, in every county in the North.

“And it’s getting worse.”

The Education Authority (EA) said it is responding to the issue by recruiting 16 new specialist posts, five of which will focus specifically on supporting pupils experiencing emotionally based school avoidance and their families.

The EA added that schools continue to provide extensive pastoral care and work closely with families to support affected pupils.