2023 has been one of the most challenging years in Jigsaw’s evolution – certainly my most challenging as Chair. Increased demand, maintaining staffing levels and increased funding challenges have all added pressures. Delivering our quality, timely and crucially important youth mental health services and supports in this climate has proved difficult. Jigsaw operates a mixed funding model with statutory funding and public fundraising - both essential in the running of our organisation.

This year, the Jigsaw Board (in light of growing demand and declining income) agreed to invest additional funding from our reserves to what we received from the HSE to support our therapeutic services. This meant more young people were able to avail of our services. However, by its very nature, this investment was one-off funding, and something we cannot provide on an ongoing basis as our financial reserves are now depleted.

As we emerge from 2023, now is the time to commence a national conversation about what youth mental health services should look like and how they will be funded. At Jigsaw, we are fully aware that the factors behind the growing demand for mental health services and supports are complex, multi-factorial and not easily addressed.

However, given what is at stake and a world that has changed like never before we must grasp the opportunities at hand in addressing the challenges before us. While this is a challenge, it does allow the state and Jigsaw to collaborate and develop an adequately resourced, accessible and integrated national youth mental health service.

2023 was very much a post pandemic year. Across Jigsaw we saw a significant return to face-to-face activities for the young people attending our services, for our training and education inputs, for staff and Board meetings and other gatherings. The benefit of a more flexible approach to both service provision and working arrangements were evident in how they are embraced by service users and staff alike to support young people where they live, learn, work and play.

This past year is the second year of the implementation of Together, Jigsaw’s Strategic Plan for 2022 to 2025. We achieved so much against a background of increasing demand and decreasing resources. In keeping with our vision, mission and values, we continued to focus our resources on achieving better mental health outcomes for young people and continued to build a high performing organisation.

Particular highlights for the year was the significant increase in the number of therapeutic contacts offered 45,376, an increase of 20% on 2022; the evolution of our clinical model focusing on significantly reducing wait times and increasing capacity and the roll out of our new client record system, iaptus, in the final quarter. In terms of strengthening the organisation we continued to focus on staff training and development, improving terms and conditions where possible leading to an increased retention rate and further developing our focus on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) through enacting a reasonable accommodation policy and training and embracing a trauma informed approach to our work. Our continuing analysis of the gender pay gap data and policy changes shows we are moving in the right direction.

Volunteering with Jigsaw holds immense importance for me as it provides a platform to share my personal mental health journey, contributing to the ongoing dialogue surrounding youth mental health in Ireland. Through this volunteer work, I can advocate for change, striving to improve attitudes and resources for young people in need of mental health support.

This year, I had the privilege of working as Jigsaw's intern, dedicating several months to various projects across the National Office teams and I was delighted to be engaged in a range of initiatives. I was part of media launches and involved in creating impactful social media campaigns. I participated in discussions regarding digital mental health supports, exploring innovative approaches to enhance accessibility and effectiveness. I had multiple opportunities to engage in political advocacy - speaking twice in Leinster House, to political parties, and to the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth - all with the main message to commit to providing better mental health supports to young people in this country.

I had the opportunity to engage in youth-led research projects, particularly focusing on inclusivity and LGBTQ+ advocates within Jigsaw. This project was the first of its kind within Jigsaw, having young people at the front of the research processes. Additionally, I assisted local Jigsaw services in evaluating their advocacy projects, leveraging data to support our ongoing efforts.

I was primarily involved with the Youth Voice and Engagement team, notably the Advocate and Amplify project. The team secured funding from Erasmus+ to empower young people as advocates in their communities. We created and provided training within the organisation to amplify the voices of Youth Advocates, enabling them to target specific issues around mental health and drive meaningful change locally in their communities.

Looking ahead, I am excited to continue my journey with Jigsaw. I want us to revolutionise youth mental health in this country, challenging the status quo and include young people every step of the way in innovative change.