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Views & Opinion
Managing expectations about mental health provision
Comment by Dr ASHA PATEL, CEO of education not-for-profit Innovating Minds
The Lancet is probably not everyday reading for busy teachers but an article published a year ago is of special interest. They covered a research report called Child mental health in England before and during the COVID-
19 lockdown
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215- 0366(20)30570-8/fulltext which looks at how the pandemic had impacted children and the support they could receive. One central finding was that the incidence of probable mental
health issues had risen from 10·8% in 2017 to 16·0% in July 2020. The findings cannot be absolute because children not in school were often not picked up by the authorities and Covid made inter-agency working even more problematic. Now that schools are back and there is talk of lifting
restrictions, even for those who test positive for Covid, you might expect that things would be better, but this is not necessarily the case.
Disrupted health care The report highlighted that during lockdown: • 44·6% of 17–22 year olds with probable mental health problems reported not seeking help because of the pandemic • Clinicians raised similar concerns about timely access to services, and a sharp decrease in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services referrals was observed. • Children and young people were physically distanced from adults outside their family who might have monitored their wellbeing and intervene • 21·6% of children and 29·0% of young people with probable mental health problems reported having no adult at school or work to whom they could turn during lockdown
Too many children slipped through the net. Even after schools
reopened for all students, 16·1% of those children who could have attended stayed at home during the 2020 summer term.
The impact of identifying mental health issues so late Academic practitioners anticipate that the delay in interventions will mean an even more unequal access to health and education. Referrals multiply, waiting lists get longer, depression, anxiety get more entrenched and young people are developing more severe forms of mental illness. The impact the mental health care crisis is having on young
people can clearly be seen in Devon with nearly 1,500 youngsters currently on the waiting list for mental health support, with some children now having waited more than 60 weeks for vital help. What does this look like in schools? Teachers are reporting
more fights, an increase in gang culture and threatening behaviour spilling over into schools. A family welfare officer from Gloucestershire said there had been a student overdose on site and incidents such as these affect the mood of the school, pupils feel anxious and insecure.
What schools and families expected Various reports since 2018 have highlighted the issues and promised to do better so schools expected more resources and
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www.education-today.co.uk
families expected an end to the postcode lottery, more joined up planning and shorter waiting lists. It has not worked out quite that way. The Education Policy
Institute released a damning report on access to child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) in 2019. It said that children with complex and less understood
difficulties did not fit clearly into diagnostic boxes and that as a result they were at risk of not being able to access CAMHS. Schools were being asked to prioritise children for referral. They
were not trained to do this and in some cases children who were he most disruptive and aggressive were seen as being more in need than children who were withdrawn and possibly suffering trauma.
The offer In a report published in December 2021, the Parliamentary health and social care committee called for “urgent action” to prevent progress on mental health slipping backwards as a result of the pandemic and unmet need. MPs want the mental health support teams, to be trained to deal with eating disorders, suicide prevention and self-harm. These were announced by Theresa May in 2017 and there is a
target that these will be in every school in the next six years. However, this mean in some cases a child in year 7 now who is desperate will probably have left school and may indeed have dropped out long before this support has been put in place. It would be fair to say that services, hospitals, mental health
organisations and charities are doing all they can to train staff to provide the right sort of support to students.
Communicating with schools One of the issues is making sure that that those developing resources and training can get the message across. That is why we are delighted that this spring we have been chosen by Comic Relief to be part of their email campaign. At Innovating Minds, we support schools nationally to
implement a whole school approach to mental health. Our Senior Mental Health Lead Training will help you create and implement a strategy for your school with the support of a team of clinical psychologists. We back this up with EduPod. A portal full of resources including videos and webinars to help you move from strategy to implementation. We also run a course to train staff to work with children who
are experiencing trauma. We believe that vulnerable children need to be with staff they trust in a place where they feel safe and in so many cases this needs to be teachers in schools. The Healing Together programme focuses on a trauma informed approach to support children with angry feelings, anxiety and those impacted by domestic abuse.
For more information
https://www.innovatingmindscic.com/
https://www.myedupod.com/cr/senior-mental-health-leads
https://lp.healing-together.co.uk/cr/healing-together programme
March 2022
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