One in ten children or young people have a diagnosable mental health problem. Around 30% 'always' or 'often' feel down. These problems are associated with lower levels of academic engagement and achievement, and ongoing difficulties into adulthood. And there's evidence to suggest that young people's mental health problems are getting worse.
Schools are an ideal place to try and tackle these difficulties. It's where young people are. A school-based mental health provision is easy to access for children and young people, it's in a familiar environment, and pupils don't have to travel long distance or take a lot of time out of lessons to get there. Not surprisingly, then, the research shows that young people may be as much as ten times more likely to attend mental health services in a school environment.
Lots of countries in the world make good use of that. In the US, they have counsellors based in most high schools. Israel has school-based counselling psychologists who help the school with a range of mental health issues. In Wales and Northern Ireland, every secondary school now has a counsellor who works with young people on a one-to-one basis.
But not England. Why not? We've got some great initiatives going on right now: making links between schools and child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS), and research into class-based interventions and school counselling. But what, surely, we need is a mental health specialist in every secondary school in the UK who can help to ensure that all the pupils of that school (and maybe also the associated primaries) are given the very best mental health care. And full-time -- not just a few days a week. That might be a psychologist, a counsellor, a mental health nurse, a teacher with a mental health speciality -- someone who has a really full knowledge of the different ways in which mental health problems in the young can be tackled. So some of the things that they might do would be:
one-to-one therapy sessions with highly distressed kids
facilitating small groups to focus on specific mental health issues (for instance, addictions)
working with parents and carers
running mental health and wellbeing workshops in classes/PHSE
advising the school pastoral care on how to help support specific pupils with mental health issues
general advice to the school leadership team on creating an emotionally literate school
liaising with community-based CAMHS, health and counselling services
training other school staff members in mental health skills
I just can't think of a better way of working to ensure that our children have the very, very best start in life.
[Click here for sources and further information on school-based counselling in the UK]