Is There a Mental Health Crisis in Schools?

In February 2022, the BBC reported a sharp rise in referrals to children and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) and school counsellors described a marked increase in those accessing their support, with some seeing almost double the number of children than in previous years.  

The pandemic has likely exacerbated pre-existing mental health conditions in young people, with research indicating people are struggling to cope as they return to school, following the lockdown and the pandemic. A survey by YoungMinds found that a quarter of young people felt there was less mental health support in their school than prior to the pandemic and 69% of young people reported poor mental health now that they are back at school. A concerning 40% of individuals described no access to school counselling and students described very few one-to-one conversations with their teachers about their well-being.

The range of mental health provision in schools varies, with some schools having little or no support for students’ mental health and other settings having specific well-being policies, school counsellors and in some cases, mental health nurses. However, it is evident more needs to be done and there needs to be a level of consistency in order to tackle the evident growing mental health crisis that schools are facing.

200 young people are taking their life a year and action needs to be taken to improve the well-being of children and young adults, through mental health awareness training and appropriate support. At a minimum, schools should have a framework for how to respond to mental health crises and take preventative steps in reducing the burden young people are currently facing.

Teachers work incredibly hard and often are overworked, with limited resources, which subsequently impacts their own well-being and mental health. In a recent survey, significant signs of burnout among teachers were identified, with one in two teachers reporting consistent burnout-related symptoms. Staff need to prioritise their own well-being in order to support others effectively and educational settings need to ensure teachers know how to respond to a young person struggling with declining mental health, through adequate supervision and training.

As an experienced mental health nurse, supervision is at the core of my practice and it is vital in ensuring there is adequate reflection and a chance to discuss concerns and formulate care. Supervision is not counselling, coaching or mentoring, it is a solution and task-focused activity, with an acknowledgment of well-being and stress levels and a space to safely discuss these feelings. It develops competency, confidence and knowledge. This leads to better patient or in this case, student outcomes and has reduced my stress levels plenty of times throughout my carer.

Supervision is a lot less common in educational settings and is far from being standard practice that is embedded, yet this needs to change. It is becoming more important and necessary for teachers to receive this as they are faced with an ever-increasing number of young people struggling with mental health. There should be a space to formulate a plan for managing and supporting individual young people and a place to share mental health-associated risks. A recent study stated that ‘‘Despite being the people pupils turn to most often when in distress, teachers are hampered in their desire to help by the profession’s widespread lack of training in tackling mental ill-health’’.

The question that school leadership teams should reflect on is this; Is there a meaningful mental health offer available, such as adequate training and an appropriate well-being policy, and do teachers have ample space to reflect on the young people that they are supporting? If the answer to any of these questions is no, there is a wide range of resources and support available to begin improving this.