Teachers on medication for mental health issues

More than one in seven Scottish teachers is taking medication for mental health problems – according to a report.

And almost half of teachers rated their mental health as poor or very poor, in the survey of almost 800 members of the profession.

The Emotional Wellbeing in Scottish Education Staff survey was conducted by Fife special needs teacher Jenny Harvey, and started earlier this month.

It also found that more than a third of teachers believe they are undervalued at work and that four out of five believe it is undervalued nationally.

Several teachers who responded to the survey said they constantly feel “guilty” that they should be doing more, whilst others say school leaders treat them as “malingerers” when off sick.

Education experts said retirement uncertainty, workload and cuts to support staff were to blame, but the Scottish Government said they were committed to reducing this.

Forty-five per cent of respondents said their mental health was “poor” or “very poor” whilst 15% were taking medication as a result of their work.

Across the UK population, 11% of women and 6% of men are taking medication for mental health issues.

Thirty-four per cent said they felt “undervalued” or “not valued” at work and a huge 81% said that teaching was “undervalued” or “not valued”.

Answering the question: “What would make your work experience better?” one teacher answered: “A leadership team who on the very rare occasions when you are off sick didn’t treat you as a malingerer.”

Another answered: “It would be lovely to be able to engage with our pupils without the crushing and crippling threat of inspection and of failure.”

Responding to the findings, Scottish Secondary Teachers Association President Euan Duncan said: “Any time that I speak to members in schools, they all talk about how stressful they have found all the recent curriculum changes and how apprehensive they are feeling about what is coming next, with changes in assessment and governance.”

EIS secretary Larry Flanagan said: “The severe workload pressure increasingly placed on staff is a likely contributing factor to the growing number of stress-related mental health issues that members are reporting.”

A Scottish Government spokesman explained that the administration was committed to reducing teacher workload and had undertaken a range of actions to achieve this.