MIND HEALTH MUST BE HIGH ON AGENDA
The pressure on kids at school ramps up every year but the support mechanisms available are sorely lacking
IT’S burnout season.
As our emergency services bravely battle blazes in the bush, I’m putting out emotional fires at home.
It’s the end of another long school year and the culmination of end-of-year parties, exams, awards nights, dance recitals and graduations has our family limping to the finishing line.
Tempers are frayed, immune systems are down and I’ve been teaching both myself and the kids some serious self-calming techniques to get through these stressful moments – we’re choosing deep breathing over brawling, meditation and quiet over strangulation and riot.
We’re mostly just tired, but I know that next year we’ll do it all again – and the stress only gets worse as they start senior school.
It’s a mystery to me how our Australian curriculum enforces teachers to lecture on healthy lunches, but not healthy heads. As much time as we spend on physical education, could we not spare a lesson for some mental health sessions?
A mother pointed out to me recently that even outside of school, there are very few mental health support options for children under the age of 18.
Headspace certainly aims to provide access to expert health workers in a safe, confidential and youthfriendly environment, but the problem is simply getting kids into that environment. Even aside from the stigma that still exists around mental health issues, trusting our children to be able to self-identify when there is an issue is dangerously naive.
And, unfortunately, as kids enter the adolescent years, parents are often the last to know when there is a problem. It’s easy to mistake depression for typical teen “moodiness” or to only see the anger that actually masks the fear.
In fact, a landmark Australian survey in 2015 showed that many parents do not recognise when their child is suffering from depression, with depression rates nearly doubling when the children provided the information themselves, as opposed to their parents.
That study also showed the number of children seeking help for mental health problems had doubled since 1998 … and it’s not getting any better.
The Victorian branch of the Australian Education Union surveyed more than 3500 government school teachers and staff in June about mental health issues and found that half know of students in their school who have self-harmed in the past year.
The Victorian teachers also said they were struggling to support students experiencing a host of mental health problems including anxiety, anger, depression and drug and alcohol abuse.
Fewer than half of those surveyed said they believed their school had access to appropriate mental health services.
It’s bad enough that our overworked teachers are expected to deliver lessons on healthy eating, even as our students’ results in core subjects like maths and English continue to decline, but this added strain of being a quasi-psychologist is too much.
In the latest draft productivity report delivered just this week, the Federal Government’s key economic advisory body recommends that all primary and high schools should employ a fulltime teacher as a “mental health and wellbeing” counsellor for children.
The approach is already being rolled out across UK schools with early signs of success.
Specialists counsellors would be fantastic, but at a cost of up to $975 million each year for both public and private schools, there’s no guarantee it will happen.
But there are steps that schools can take now to help our students.
At Coomandook Area School in South Australia they host “Chat’n’Chill” sessions at recess and lunchtime three days a week for students who are in need of some “space”.
Students can use the room for crafts, games and to talk with friends and peers in a supported, caring space – or they can just use it as a quiet area to study.
Overseen by pastoral
support teachers, a Headspace youth worker visits the school once a month to provide additional support for identified students.
It’s brilliant in its simplicity. Anyone who has ever had a mental health issue knows that talking about it helps – learning that you’re not alone, that you’re not abnormal, can take the sting out of the pain … even if it’s not a “cure” in itself.
As parents, we can tell our kids that we’re here and they’re fine … but it just doesn’t mean as much as when it comes from their peers.
Yes, it will no doubt involve some paperwork and organisation – but if we can corral our prep students into singing in unison at assemblies, we can surely achieve this.
And maybe while we’re at it, we can create a support group for parents too – Chat’n’Chill’n’Champers … here’s cheers to the (almost) end of the school year.