Teachers 'unprepared to deal with pupils' mental health woes'
Difficult Up To As If For Place School Researchers Difficulties Increase The Grow In World Health Told Resulting They An In', Young Mental Was People Increasingly In 'being Feel An Staff
Despite being relied on increasingly to deliver wellbeing initiatives in schools, teachers often do not feel prepared or equipped to support students with mental health difficulties.
While many feel generally positive about mental health engagement in schools, a lack of training and qualifications leads some school staff to find this kind of support difficult or overwhelming.
The findings are included in a comprehensive study of the experiences of secondary school staff when it comes to supporting and promoting adolescent mental health, carried out by researchers at University College Dublin (UCD) in conjunction with Jigsaw, the national centre for youth mental health.
To date, there has been little focus on the experiences of staff in Irish secondary schools when it comes to youth mental health.
The almost 360 school staff who took part in the study considered mental health to be a growing priority within schools, as well as within the Irish education system, and society as a whole.
Some told researchers they feel as if the world was “becoming an increasingly difficult place for young people to grow up in”, resulting in an increase in mental health difficulties.
They referred to a “myriad” of complex issues that students in their care deal with.
“These issues often impact students’ academic performance and their behaviour and needs in school, sometimes to the extent that they require additional support.”
However, despite increased awareness, many felt the increased mental health engagement had in some cases led to significantly increased demands on school staff.
“These demands result in many staff feeling under duress and in some cases experiencing mental health issues themselves.
“Staff experience increased pressure due to rising demands, the lack of appropriate external services to refer students to, as well as the difficulty of balancing mental health support with their other duties within the school.
Teachers who took part in the survey reported being “concerned about saying the wrong thing, expressing fear of causing harm to the students in their care by ‘sticking their foot in it’ or otherwise of making things worse”.
Some teachers also also discussed “considerable fears” around missing signs of serious mental health issues.
“Finally, a smaller number of staff also discussed a lack of knowledge of how to balance the need to manage student behaviours and academic progress with the need to support and accommodate students who may be suffering from mental health difficulties.”
One teacher told researchers the introduction to wellbeing into the curriculum has been a “positive” move.
“However there has been limited training in the area. Teachers need to be trained and feel confident. We have been trained to teach subjects. The expectation to ‘teach’ wellbeing is totally new and a lot of teachers feel overwhelmed with the area.”