NI young people still experience paramilitary-related trauma – report

Speaking to BBC News NI, Dr Walsh, said: “As you would expect, people in the older age groups are much more likely to say that they have experienced conflict-related trauma.”

What he described as “interesting” and “contrary to what you would assume” is that there was still exposure among younger age groups, such as 18 to 24-year-olds.

“We still see them reporting that they’ve been exposed to conflict-related violence, directly and indirectly, as well as paramilitary threats, which is kind of fascinating,” he added.

“It’s really interesting that we still see this exposure [in younger individuals].”

Dr Walsh said those who are exposed to conflict-related trauma are “more likely to develop complex mental health issues”, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

He added individuals are also more likely to engage in risk-taking behaviour, such as substance abuse, and are more likely to “exclude themselves and overall not function very well”.

He said the findings highlight that “adversary in Northern Ireland is highly prevalent and impactful” and is a “burden that cuts across all of our systems – health, justice, education, communities”.

“There’s almost a cascading knock-on effect of difficulty, harm clusters, that is what we see.”