School guidance counsellors need more resources

I am writing to call on our government to increase the guidance resources in our schools so that we are better able to help our students.

In our province, guidance counsellors are allocated using a 1 to 500 student formula, which leaves many schools without a full-time guidance counsellor.

Recommendations to increase the number of guidance counsellors date back more than a decade, however there is still no change.

In 2007, the province’s Teacher Allocation Commission recommended one guidance counsellor per 333 students; the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association recommends one counsellor per 250 students.

Almost two years ago, the president of the NLTA, Dean Ingram, called on government to increase the number of guidance counsellors and school psychologists, stating that with increased mental health needs, our schools have only half the number needed” (The Telegram, Sept. 30, 1997).

Research shows that students’ mental, social and emotional needs have been steadily increasing, and now in light of

COVID-19, their needs are that much higher.

Students who suffer from anxiety and depression are likely feeling more anxious and depressed. Students who find socializing difficult will now find it even more so. Students who experienced abuse and trauma at home are most likely experiencing more now.

And what about those students who can only access their guidance counsellor a day or so a week? Those who are in the middle of a panic attack, who are being bullied, whose parents fought this morning, who just broke up with their boy/girlfriend, who was just abused or witnessed abuse, who is experiencing suicidal ideations — they have to wait for counselling services, and in a day or two, it may be too late.

Guidance counsellors across the province are feeling the stress of not being able to adequately meet the needs of their students.

Even if they are in the building, our guidance counsellors are often inundated with other tasks such as student assessments: Special Service Delivery applications and paperwork, student medical issues, etc.

In many other provinces, school guidance counsellors solely counsel students and provide proactive programming on issues of concern — these other tasks are not on their plates.

Right now, guidance counsellors from across the province are volunteering their services to provide counselling to students whose schools do not have a full-time guidance counsellor. This is a Band-aid solution. It is my hope, that instead of us volunteering, more guidance counsellors are hired full-time, with students having access to guidance services during the entirety of their school day. Thus, to be as prepared as possible to meet the mental health and social/emotional needs of our students when they return in the fall, I ask government to increase the allocation formula to one guidance counsellor for up to 250 students, thus ensuring a full-time guidance counsellor in every school.

Any less will leave our teachers, students, and their families in a larger state of distress than they are in now.

Tracey Chapman Guidance counsellor Conception Bay South