Individuals who pursue careers and education in school counseling can give students the support they need. School counselors can create and implement initiatives that create safe and inclusive spaces for students seeking mental health support. Addressing students’ mental health concerns is a critical component of school counseling that affects a significant number of children. This shortage means that those who choose to become school counselors can have an even greater impact on students’ well-being. American School Counselor Association (ASCA) research indicates that school counselors can be instrumental in helping students prepare for life after high school.
What can a counsellor do to help my child?
Though nurses deal with physical ailments, these symptoms can often be tied to mental health. They help special education teachers develop individualized education plans and monitor progress. Duties may vary — and blur together — depending on the school and district. The teacher will know what resources are available at the school and be able to refer parents to the appropriate person. When U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy issued a public health advisory this month on protecting youth mental health, he brought attention to the widespread challenges facing today’s young people.
Nearly all school counselors reported providing crisis counseling, coordinating with parents to support students’ mental health, and making referrals to outside mental health providers; and more than half provided mental health counseling and classroom programming. Specifically, school counselors want to spend less time engaged in non-counseling duties (e.g., bus duty and class scheduling) and more time providing mental health services, such as gambling group interventions. In middle schools, school counselors typically focus on helping students develop coping strategies to deal with the physical, social, and emotional changes of adolescence and puberty. As students progress through their education and plan for adulthood, school counselors provide guidance and support. School counselors are trained to recognize mental health risk factors and to provide counseling, which can improve their students’ mental health as well as their overall functioning, personal and social development, career development, and educational success.7
Supporting mental health in schools and colleges: identification and assessment of needs
Thus, school leaders may be able to capitalize on elements of training shared across professionals when considering how to best implement comprehensive SMH services. By delineating the unique competencies and their overlap with key features of comprehensive SMH systems, we hope to increase efficient use of existing SMH professionals and maximize benefits to students. As school leadership consider strategies to deploy SMH staff, understanding these perspectives may be useful for determining how to staff SMH services.
Place2Be therapy sessions use talking, creative work and play to enhance communication skills and emotional development. Pupils may also be referred to one-to-one counselling if they score highly on emotional or peer difficulties on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). The service aims to give children the tools and skills they need to deal with their problems in a healthy and constructive way. We develop our whole-class work, resources and activities to help pupils better understand mental health and wellbeing. Enquire about becoming a Place2Be partner school now.
Similarly, school psychologist duties may be able to be shifted away from an emphasis on special education eligibility and toward an emphasis on prevention and the provision of SMH services (Dowdy et al., 2014; Splett et al., 2013). Thus, schools should consider the national certifications held by SMH professionals, the accreditation status of their training programs, and their previous experiences when determining the competencies of current and prospective hires. Finally, the standards of only two professions—school psychology and school social work—reflected competencies related to universal mental health screening and mental health therapy, which are critical to effective SMH systems (Dowdy et al., 2014; Kern et al., 2017). Results also provided insight into additional factors that school leaders and SMH professionals should consider when allocating tasks.
- Schools are prioritizing students’ mental health, and there are many tools and resources to choose from.
- MHA advocates for “investing in prevention and early intervention programs and providing access to appropriate services.
- School counseling takes place in public and private school settings in grades K-12.
In line with that, cost-benefit analyses of mental health programs have found these programs result not only in economic productivity gains but also improved health 9,10. These consequences may range from poor educational attainment, compromised physical health, substance abuse, juvenile delinquency, and unemployment to even premature mortality (e.g., suicide 6,7,8). (eds) Clinical Considerations in School-based Health.
