Calls for resilience training, more extra-curricular activities in schools to help prevent mental health disorders

Doctors are calling for coping and social skills training and more extracurricular activities in schools to help prevent the rise of mental health problems in children, according to a new study.

The investigation, led by Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) and published in PLUS ONE, found that clinicians were also pushing for more effective ways to improve educators’ skills in mental health prevention, identification, and early intervention, including peer support for school psychologists and mental health education for teachers .

The study involved 143 doctors from Victoria and South Australia who were interviewed about their views on how the education system could better support students’ mental health and improve access to support services.

Physicians, who included psychiatrists, paediatricians, psychologists, and general practitioners, believed that the educational system could play an important role in improving access to mental health services by leveraging existing staff or co-locating primary care physicians. mental health.

They also suggested that schools could identify children at risk, use prevention and early intervention strategies, and implement coping and social skills programs.

MCRI researcher Kate Paton said some clinicians felt schools were well-positioned to identify students with mental health problems, as systems were in place within the education sector to monitor, such as access to attendance and records. academics.

“Schools as buildings act as a trusted physical space where mental health clinicians can offer services that are otherwise difficult to access,” he said. Doctors believed that teachers can offer prevention by supporting children through psychoeducation, sports and social skills, and school-wide coping programs.”

Ms Paton said that as doctors’ voices were often missing from the debate, she hoped the findings would help address the need for mental health support in schools.

“While educators have identified many challenges in providing this support, including perceived stigma, lack of resources, and an overloaded curriculum, understanding clinicians’ views on the role of educators and schools and how they might work together to achieve good mental health outcomes are important questions. ,” she said.

“It is important to understand whether there may be different perspectives between mental health educators and clinicians that need to be brought together if these professionals are to work together successfully to achieve good mental health education and outcomes.”

The research builds on MCRI’s efforts to establish mental health support in schools. TO mental health pilot programdeveloped by the MCRI in collaboration with the University of Melbourne and the Victoria Department of Education and Training it was expanded to a total of 100 schools by 2022, after being trialled in Victorian primary schools.

The program was piloted in 10 primary schools in 2020 with encouraging feasibility results, strong support from schools, and indications that it could improve care pathways for children with emerging mental health issues.

The initiative incorporates a child mental health and wellness coordinator within schools to help identify and manage emerging mental health issues in students and provide connections between educational, health and social services.

MCRI Professor Harriet Hiscock He said that the prevalence of mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression, which were the main source of disease burden, had remained unchanged for the past 20 years.

“Given that about 50 percent of mental health disorders begin before the age of 14, prevention and early intervention are critical if we are to reduce the lifetime prevalence of mental health disorders and enable children live the best life possible,” he said. Therefore, improving the mental health of children and adolescents has become an international priority.”

Professor Hiscock said that mental health problems have such a great adverse effect on children’s educational progress that academic potential could not be achieved unless schools address students’ mental health.

Researchers from the University of Melbourne, The Royal Children’s Hospital, the Institute for Social Neuroscience, the University of Adelaide and the Women’s and Children’s Health Network in Adelaide also contributed to the study.

Read more about MCRI child and youth mental research here.

Publication: Kate Paton, Lynn Gillam, Hayley Warren, Melissa Mulraney, David Coghill, Daryl Efron, Michael Sawyer, and Harriet Hiscock. ‘How can the education sector support children’s mental health? Views of Australian health care practitioners.’ PLUS ONE. DOI: 10.1371/diary.puts.0261827

*The content of this communication is the sole responsibility of MCRI and does not reflect the views of NHMRC.

Available for interview:

Professor Harriet Hiscock, MCRI Group Leader, Health Services

Dr. Bianca Forrester, Melbourne GP