Teachers given ‘first aid’ training to spot depression and anxiety
Rosemary Bennett
The Times
Gerry Gajadharsingh writes:
Continuing the press coverage to raise awareness of the explosion of mental health issues affecting our young people, the Times are to be congratulated on their campaign “Time to Mind” with yet another excellent piece regarding training teachers in mental health “first aid”. Whilst teachers are there to teach, I am sure many of them are very aware of the changes in behaviour, exhibited by many teenagers, as they struggle to cope with their challenges in life. Sometimes these are just transient and the children may be fine, but increasingly they are not.
Similarly, many clinicians have had to update their training (many postgraduately) to help them understand the effects of psychology on patient presentations; teachers will need to do the same. Many of my Osteopathic colleagues were initially reluctant to explore psychological effects in patients’, saying they weren’t trained to do so (interesting as I had 1 year of clinical psychology as part of my Osteopathic undergraduate training). As the report flags up below, clinicians and teachers are not expected to be trained counselors and therapists. However they are in a unique position to listen (if they want to) and being exposed to their pupils on a very regular basis, they can often be in a unique position to be aware of changes in behavior that might give cause for concern. Then being able to ask for more expert help initially with pastoral care (that many schools in both the state and private education sectors provide) then with reference to more expert specialist care for more challenging problems.
Teaching children the tools to help their brains be calmer and not to become overwhelmed can be very helpful, such as breathing & meditation techniques, Mindfulness. Often glucose dysregulation (as a consequence to poor eating habits, too frequent meals and high glycaemic load carbohydrates) can really amplify the way stress affects people, as can inadequate dietary protein and fat (both necessary for proper brain neurotransmitters function).
However I also sense that helping them become more robust in dealing with the challenges in life. Now that’s a big subject!
A top-performing private school has trained all its staff in mental health “first aid”, believing teachers are “on the front line” to spot and help pupils struggling with stress, anxiety or depression.
City of London School, a selective and high-achieving boys’ school, said it did not want responsibility for its pupils’ mental health to fall solely on pastoral care staff and all needed to be vigilant and be able to help.
Andrew McBroom, head of sixth form and staff development at the school, said the training instructed teachers on what to do from the moment a child asked to speak to them in confidence to how to listen and the questions to ask.
It also suggested some forms of advice but urged teachers to know their limitations and where to go if more serious intervention is required.
The course has been created by Mental Health First Aid England, a not-for-profit social enterprise.
“The days of telling a boy to pull themselves together are well and truly over,” Mr McBroom said.
“The reality is, we are at the front line. We have good relationships with the pupils so they feel comfortable talking to us and since that is the reality, having some training in what to say is very useful.”
Whereas teenage girls often suffered from eating disorders or signs of self-harm, teenage boys were more prone to depression, low mood and anxiety, he said.
There was concern, too, that boys were having difficulty with body image, driven by social media among other factors.
It is widely believed that children’s mental health is getting worse, a result, in part, of exam pressure and the effects of social media, which often make youngsters feel inadequate.
In March The Times launched the TimetoMind campaign which aims to increase awareness of the problem and calls for far greater investment in prevention and treatment services.
Mr McBroom said that schools were in a difficult position, pushing pupils to do their best without adding to the stress. “There is no doubt pupils are under a significant amount of pressure and academic performance is partly responsible. It would be misleading if we told the boys that they didn’t need to get fantastic results to get into a top university. Cambridge requires two A*s and an A.
“In all schools there is aspiration to do well and work hard, but there is also a need for good wellbeing and sometimes there is a tension between those two things.”
With all teachers now trained, any boy who asked if he can speak to a teacher will be told “yes, sit down”.
“We never know which teacher a pupil might choose to confide in,” Mr McBroom added. “Getting something off your chest can bring considerable relief and I hope this is a place where teachers have the time and energy and knowledge to listen and help.”
Poppy Jaman, chief executive of Mental Health First Aid England, said going on the course did not make a teacher a counsellor or psychiatrist but it gave them confidence to help.
“That might involve just listening to them, non-judgmentally and encouraging self-help strategies or perhaps signposting to appropriate help, either of which can be hugely beneficial to the person concerned,” she said.
“It’s a sobering thought, but if you consider that more people die through suicide every year than as a result of road traffic accidents I think it becomes pretty clear that schools, parents, teachers and children all need to be better educated about mental health.”