Two mothers who have tragically lost their children in car accidents have urged drivers to slow down and be mindful on the road.

Estlin Wall (three) and Martin Ginnelly (21) were both killed in separate road traffic collision in the past six years, and their mothers want to stop to the needless devastation wreaked on families by road deaths.

Martin’s mother Caroline has not missed a day visiting her son’s grave since he was killed when the car in which he was a passenger was involved in a single-vehicle collision just five minutes from his home at Gibbstown, Co Meath in July 2018.

Ms Ginnelly said the pain of losing her son has not eased, but she no longer expects him to walk in her door to hug her or to ring her to find out what’s for dinner.

“I was 60 on Wednesday, and it should have been a very happy occasion, but Martin was missing and each year feels like I’m leaving him further behind,” she said.

“He rang me several times a day and gave me a load of hugs and I miss that.

Pat, Martin and Caroline Ginnelly.

“When the garda told us Martin was dead that day, my life and my whole world collapsed before me. He’s my baby, he was only 21, he shouldn’t have been killed.

“I have been at his grave every day since he died. If I have to go to visit family in Mayo, I visit before I go and then the next day when we get home. I haven’t been away longer than that,” she said.

“So many people have been killed needlessly on the roads. Life is precious. Cars are not toys, they can be weapons.

“Drivers need to slow down and concentrate on the roads. How many times have you driven on a road, preoccupied with other stuff in your head, and actually couldn’t remember driving that stretch?

“Too many cars have hands-free options now, but I still see drivers on their mobile phones every day. And a quick glance at a text message while driving may mean you never get to answer it,” Ms Ginnelly added.

“A split second, a lapse of concentration or a stray glance can leave some other family, like us, in a living hell struggling to ever fully accept that they are never coming home again.”

Responsibility

Estlin’s mother, Amy Dutil Wall has called for drivers to take more personal responsibility on the roads to prevent other families facing a groundhog day future of reliving the tragedy over and over.

Estlin, from Ennistymon, Co Clare, was just nine days short of her fourth birthday when she was killed in a crash in March 2017 as her father was driving her to creche. Her father Vincent suffered a brain injury in the collision.

“I think all drivers need to take personal responsibility when on the roads,” she said

“It’s very easy to reduce speed limits but in some cases, lack of speed is as much a cause as too much speed as it causes frustration and impatience to other drivers following a slow-moving vehicle and makes them take dangerous chances to overtake.

Estlin Wall with her mother, Amy Dutil Wall.

“I saw an argument that Ireland has a lower death rate on the roads than other countries, but there should be no acceptable number for deaths on the roads. It should never be ‘not too bad’,” Ms Dutil Wall said.

“Behind every number, every statistic, is a loved one and a family whose life has also been ended to different degrees. Behind every statistic, there could also be a survivor who, like Vincent, is living with life-changing injuries.

“A life of what could have beens is not a full life,” she said.

She also called for a look at a current programme in her native US where a sensor is installed in cars to monitor their driving habits.

“This sensor monitors speed, brake control and all driving habits and sends a report to your phone at the end of each drive, rating how safe you were driving. The results can lead to lower insurance premiums.

“People love getting good reports, so this could be one that would encourage drivers to want to improve their skills and save money, instead of costing them more with additional penalty points.”

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A recent letter released by three major health care groups stated emergency room mental health visits by youths ages 18 and under has increased 30-fold over the past decade.

The ongoing crisis in mental health issues among children in Utah and across the nation has prompted three major health care groups to issue a joint letter warning of the “astronomical” increase in emergency room visits.

The policy letter, written and released Aug. 16 by the American Academy of Pediatrics, Emergency Nurses Association and American College of Emergency Physicians, stated emergency room mental health visits by youths ages 18 and under has increased 30-fold over the past decade. Every year, over half a million children are evaluated in emergency rooms across the nation, the letter said.

In addition, the report states emergency rooms are not equipped to handle the complex mental health problems and called for additional sources of funding to expand more services for pediatric mental and behavioral health issues.

“Utah is similar to the rest of the country in the fact that we have consistently seen a rise in youth presenting to the ER throughout the state for mental health crisis visits,” said Dr. Lisa Giles, director of behavioral health at Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital. “As we look at all of our Intermountain hospitals in the state, we have seen volumes continue to rise.”

Giles said visits did decrease somewhat during the COVID-19 pandemic but then began climbing again in 2022. Some of the issues kids are dealing with include suicidal ideation, anxiety, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, ADHD, aggression, anger, refusal to go to school, oppositional behavior, temper tantrums and other concerns.

According to a study in February from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the most common disorders diagnosed among U.S. children ages 3-17 are ADHD and anxiety, followed by depression and suicide in children 12-17.

One cause for the increase, the CDC stated, could stem from lockdowns during the pandemic, but other factors also play a role.

“I think one thing is better recognition,” Giles said. “We’re more willing to talk about it and acknowledge it, which stems from a decreased stigma in mental health, but there are also other reasons such as increased social media use, screen dependency, online bullying and losing more face-to-face interaction with other people.”

Giles said in addition, kids today are under a lot of pressure from world events. Decades ago, kids in school went through routine fire drills. Today, they have fire drills, earthquake drills, and active shooter/lockdown drills, which can drive anxiety issues.

“One thing we know for sure is the system is hard to access, so the ER becomes the front door for a crisis because people don’t know where else to turn. But we need to work on how to get them the right help at the right time and at the right place,” Giles said.

Giles said there are several resources in Utah to turn to. Primary Children’s Hospital has a behavioral health assessment, referral and consultation service where a team of specialists answers calls and conducts a triage to decide what services are needed and how they can be accessed as close to home as possible. The number is 801-313-7711. Another service available is SafeFam Utah, a stabilization and mobile response service where teams can go into the home and respond to the situation and provide help. The free service is available in most counties and can be reached at 1-833-723-3326. Anyone can call or text 211 to find available resources as well, and 988 is the national suicide prevention hotline to call 24/7.

“These resources can really help people work through those difficulties and make sure they have a connection with ongoing health services,” Giles said. “I always like to remind folks that kids are resilient. We need to continue to try to connect them to the resources in our schools and in our communities and get them the care they need. Help is available and I am optimistic that things are moving forward.”

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One of the main ways a nationwide mental health crisis among children is manifesting itself in the B-R school district is more absences, a school official said.

The stressors of returning to in-person school have led to mental health issues and higher rates of absences, according to Paul Tzovolos, Bridgewater-Raynham director of student services.

“The biggest indicators that we’re seeing right now are linked to attendance, and students who have either school avoidance or school refusal,” Tzovolos said.

B-R has at least one school psychologist in each school, in addition to school adjustment counselors.

But even that is not enough to match the recent surge of students in need of support, he said.

“You’ll see a lot more students taking mental health days or a lot more students who have families who now work from home, so it’s easier for families just to say, okay, you can stay home today,” Tzovolos said.

Many pediatric organizations declared a national emergency for youth mental health during the pandemic. Mental health–related emergency room visits increased 24% for children ages 5 to 11 and 31% for children ages 12 to 17 from March 2020 to October 2020, compared to emergency room visits from 2019, according to a CDC report.

The data reflects a nationwide epidemic of trauma and sadness for young girls, according to another recent CDC report, which found that almost three in five girls experienced feelings of persistent sadness and hopelessness, and almost one in three had seriously considered attempting suicide.

Legislation to address youth mental health crisis

There are several bills being considered by the state legislature that would address mental health support in schools throughout the commonwealth. A bill filed by state Sen. Rebecca Rausch, D-Needham, would provide mental health professionals at a ratio of at least one per 250 students, with a minimum of one at each elementary and secondary school in the state.

“One of the great tragic ironies in our country is that the resources that could really help make a difference for children and families are typically the thinnest in areas in which the need is greatest,” said Lenette Azzi-Lessing, clinical professor of social work and chair of the Macro Social Work Department at Boston University.

A statewide workforce shortage of mental health professionals is further exacerbating a lack of access to services. The Association for Behavioral Healthcare report found that wait times for an initial mental health assessment by a licensed clinician are more than two months on average.

“One of the things I say a lot is ‘a waiting list is not a service.’ And way too often children, youth and families end up on waiting lists and can never get the services that they need because there is such a shortfall between the need and what’s available,” Azzi-Lessing said.

She said it is important to help lawmakers realize that this is not a new problem and “the service system has been chronically underfunded and under-resourced from the beginning.”

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How many school psychologists does Brockton have?

Brockton Public Schools has at least one school psychologist and a team of school adjustment counselors in each school, according to Brockton school officials.

What’s the recommended number of school psychologists?

But some mental health experts believe that one school psychologist per school is insufficient to reach the growing number of students suffering from mental illness or trauma.

“I think very often the public doesn’t realize when they hear about school social workers, for instance, that there might be one social worker, maybe two, for a school that has hundreds of children. And obviously, those one or two professionals can’t even begin to identify, let alone meet all the mental health needs of children in a given school,” Azzi-Lessing said.

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Resources are scarcest where need is greatest

Before the pandemic, the availability of behavioral health services in schools varied greatly, said Mary McGeown, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.

“In some of our more affluent communities, you saw more supports. And in those communities that had a higher population of families below the poverty level, there weren’t as many supports for children with behavioral health needs,” McGeown said.

Families living in poverty often had caregivers who could not work from home during the pandemic, she said. Children worried as they watched their parents go into a world that they were constantly being told was dangerous, and many lost parents and grandparents.

“And these are the children who are returning to our schools. And what they’ve experienced over the last two or three years is going to be with them, and we need to be able to address the trauma that they’ve experienced so that they’re able to heal and come out of it okay,” she said.

Schools are on the frontlines

Children are often first identified as having mental health issues in schools, McGeown said. Treatment in the school setting is less stigmatizing for youth and more accessible for low-income families, who may otherwise find it challenging to transport kids to and from therapy.

The Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children is part of the Children’s Mental Health Campaign, which filed legislation that would require the state to develop a comprehensive behavioral health support system throughout schools in three years.

An investment in school behavioral health services is critical to supporting kids, and some schools will require more investment than others to achieve equity, McGeown said.

“I think it will help kids’ emotional and social development, it will help them academically, it will help us keep our schools safe,” she said.

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