We were approached by the reporter Catherine Day, and agreed to being interviewed for a new series on mental health amongst young people that Radio 4 were planning for Woman’s Hour, to be aired throughout June.
The episode we featured in, heard three teachers (primary, secondary and a college) discussing how the increase in mental health issues amongst young people was impacting on teachers. One teacher commented that younger children are presenting with issues that were previously only seen in older children, such as self-harming and anxiety, and according to the Children’s Society, 1 in 10 children have an identifiable mental health problem. Another teacher spoke about the pressure on schools to improve attainment and how that pressure is then transferred to children, so that by the age of 11 they have already experienced that exam anxiety.
The teachers discussed the feelings of helplessness and anger that they experience when support services for young people are unable to meet the needs of students due to their own capacity issues. This often means that seriously ill and vulnerable children are on waiting lists for far too long, for example, it took months for a 13-year-old child with acute anxiety, to the point of not being able to leave their room, to get professional support. Many schools and colleges can only offer part time counselling services which means that there are often long waiting lists there as well. We are increasingly signposting young people to charitable organisations who offer free support for the individual and their families, such as Kooth. In this way we are trying to ensure that young people get support quickly.
A Head Teacher spoke about how people become teachers because they care about young people, and they have lots of strategies they can use to support students academically, but fewer strategies to support them through serious mental health problems. Teachers often take this personally and question what they could do better to help that young person. This is where appropriate training comes in, such as MHFA, which helps teachers recognise their own limitations and the importance of making appropriate referrals.
An important message relayed in the programme was the fact that teachers are often in the spot light, as the media or government states what we should be doing to help, and teachers do generally want to do more. However, we are not medically trained mental health care professionals and there are limits to what we can do before it starts impacting on our own wellbeing.
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