The current crisis of youth mental health has been well reported across the world. Prior to COVID-19, depression was widely documented in young adults in Ireland. From the Growing Up in Ireland (2019) data, over one in five young men, and one in three young women, had elevated scores on a measure of depressive symptoms. Reported statistics for depression were also gendered, with 32% female and 23% of males reporting symptoms.

According to My World data, less than half of young adults reported their mental well-being as normal, while other levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms were reported as mild (14%), moderate (21%), severe (10%) and very severe (13%) (Dooley et al, 2019).

To date, Rethink Ireland has reached over 95,000 people through funding social innovations within the health sector. Over 8,600 people accessed their awardees’ mental health services in person or online in 2020 of which 5,169 participants were under the age of 25

Health has been part of Rethink Ireland’s core focus since we began. With the support of our generous donors and the Government of Ireland, we have invested €15.5 million in health since 2016, supporting 83 innovations in this area and helping us to reach at least 95,000 people.

Our support means that more organisations can carry out vital treatment and prevention work in communities across the country. It also means that more people can develop and maintain good mental health practices and, ultimately, more lives are saved as a result of funding essential, innovative health programmes.