Mental health in schools - a plea to Government

Hi all

The topic of this blog came to mind primarily for two reasons: 1) I spent most of my school life with varying degrees of anxiety (a range between crippling and irritating and usually nearer the former) and 2) because of the recent splurge in the media about mental health especially in relation to schools, following Theresa May's pledge that more support will be going into mental healthcare in this country.

Photos like this just exacerbate the problem

I will state from the outset that this will not be a political blog (particularly), but what regarding the recent announcements I will say is this.  Positive: Mental health and its crises is being talked about more (for now) and is at least recognised.  Negative: How on earth is Mrs May going to deliver on her promises?

One of the announcements as per the aforementioned was to suggest that teachers should become trained to spot when a child is experiencing a mental health problem.  At first I thought hurrah, at last, the penny has dropped.  Since then, I have thought about this notion several times, each time with more despair than before. 

For a start, teachers are under enough pressure as it is and the statistics around the mental health of teachers themselves are hard enough to swallow.  They have far too much work to do in order to do their job well as it is, let alone undergo more training to spot signs of what could be anxiety, depression, bipolar or any other of the myriad of mental health conditions.  Training to be a mental health professional is just that - a profession. It shouldn't be a bolt-on to an existing job.

Of course, if a teacher does recognise that something is clearly wrong with a student, then yes, report it via the right channels.  But more can be done to improve these channels. Plus, and I know this from first-hand experience - even students can be damn good at hiding mental health problems.  When I was at school, I didn't even really know what was happening to me when I used to lie there at night having panic attack after panic attack. "Why does this happen to me? Is it like this for everyone?" I used to say, out loud.  Not knowing meant I was stuck between an odd emotional concoction of either thinking it's something normal and therefore not mentioning it to anyone, and thinking if it is "just me" then people will think I'm weird and laugh at me even more than they already did (unsurprisingly, I wasn't exactly popular at school).  So I said nothing to anyone, and indeed, did my level best to hide any 'symptoms' of anxiety to anyone.  I had a few panic attacks during school classes during my school career and managed to hide them with a combination of looking down at my desk and pretending I was concentrating on something work related and a bit of luck.  Had a teacher ever picked on me during a panic attack, I would have been exposed.  As it is, no-one ever knew I had crippling anxiety whilst I was at school. I only "came out" during my university years.

So back to my original point - how on earth would a teacher have identified that all was not well, unless they happened to ask me something during a panic attack, or with the help of a touch of clairvoyance?

I shudder to think of how many school children, all throughout primary school up to their late teens, suffer in this way.  It's an absolute disaster, exacerbated in 2017 I don't doubt with the domination and onslaught of social media - don't get me started on that again.

So what can be done? Well, the answer is threefold - and yes, all of them cost money and resource.  Suck it up, Government.

1) A general improvement to the whole mental health care system.  This takes me back to the hollow/firm (delete as appropriate) promises Mrs May gave last week.  An overhaul to the whole NHS is needed if you believe what you read, with mental health - still - the poor man's relation to physical health across the whole system.  This cannot continue with the increasing number of children suffering with mental health problems.  And they ARE suffering.  I was suffering, let me assure you.  Yes it's partly down to money, but also some considered thought that needs to go into the system to make it possible for a child - or anyone else - to be able to access quick, empathetic and good quality care for a mental health problem, rather than the current shambolic and dangerous "give him/her an anti-depressant and put him/her on a 12 month therapy waiting list" approach.

2) For goodness sake, put learning about mental health on the syllabus and make it mandatory. Bring in specialists to help run the course. What to look out for, how you can get help and all the rest of it.  School is all about learning largely pointless tripe that no-one gives a **** about and is no use in later life.  Whilst you're at it, put other life skills (accountancy, plumbing, cooking (not cakes), PE theory etc.) on the curriculum as well.  And by the way, by putting mental health on the curriculum, you're also educating the teachers about it!!

3) Consider utilising specialists, not just for talks or lessons which could be integrated into the above, but also actually in schools.  Perhaps schools and charities could start partnering together to ensure that they have good access to quick advice, guidance and support to students who may be suffering.  They could spread literature round schools to help fellow students identify if their friends have problems (in line with point 2).  This would almost be more effective than teachers trying to identify problems in students, as students' friends would know them better and recognise if something was wrong. You could also have a mental health specialist from the NHS or privately based at a school, or across a few schools one or two days a week. 

Yes, these would all require significant resource but I don't care or agree with austerity Britain and I firmly believe that the Government should find ways of achieving outcomes like the above.

I can say this not because I am remotely qualified, but because I have the experience.  Student life for me was mostly a living hell. Half the time I didn't even know what was happening to me, let alone where I could get help from.  I was scared to tell anyone, teacher or otherwise, because I thought I'd be singled out, treated as a head case.  I simply bottled it all up and let it explode inside of me at a later date, or hour, in the form of more panic.  How many other kids are going through similar - or worse - experiences that I did and thus not just ruining their school lives but damaging their futures too?

Please can we sort this out? Doing nothing is no longer an option.

Best wishes

Al