This Spotlight report is focused on youth mental health, aiming to gather the most relevant data available in the Irish context, and in comparison internationally. The Spotlight has been developed in cooperation with the Tusla Programme Development unit and the Youth Reform Strategy & Participation unit to ensure that it meets their policy needs.

The Spotlight is structured into five sections and a number of statistical tables are presented under each section. The first section studies protective factors, characteristics which may improve the likelihood that a person will respond well to the stresses of life, while the second section concerns risk factors, characteristics that may increase the possibility of a person developing a mental health disorder. The third section outlines the prevalence of mental health disorders among children and young people in Ireland, and is focused primarily on depressive and anxiety disorders. The fourth section investigates the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on mental health, and the fifth and final section examines mental health service provision for children and young people in Ireland.