Emotional distress increases among students but counselling helps, report finds

Wednesday, 11 September 2024

A school counselling programme is helping students increasingly affected by emotional distress.

An Education Review Office (ERO) report found eight in 10 students reported improvements to their mental health after receiving counselling from the Counselling in Schools - Awhi Mai Awhi Atu programme.

The $44 million scheme, introduced in 2021, aimed to deliver 100,000 hours of counselling each year to intermediate and small secondary schools for four years.

It successfully targeted low socioeconomic areas, reflecting the programme’s aim to reach schools with higher needs and to develop an approach that met the needs of each school.

Students with the most psychological distress had the largest improvement – 61% compared to 35% of students with the lowest mental health scores.

“I learnt that I could control my emotions and get into class in the mornings and I could get support from my friends,” one student said.

Meanwhile, a teacher reported their students seeming happier, “like they had a weight lifted off their shoulders”.

Ruth Shinoda, the head of ERO's Education Evaluation Centre said it was concerning mental health challenges were increasing in Aotearoa.

For children aged 14 and younger, there was an estimated 4% increase between the year 2016 to 2017 and 9% to 13% from 2022 to 2023.

The ongoing impacts of Covid-19 were likely to be a driver.

“This is not only harmful for children’s wellbeing but is also having a significant impact on their learning,” Shinoda said.

But findings in the report, released on Tuesday, were encouraging.

“Teachers also told us that counselling improves overall classroom behaviour, with three-quarters of teachers reporting improvements in wider classroom behaviour due to counselling.

“Improvements in mental health are key to improved learning, attendance, and behaviour.”

The programme offered different types of counselling on the school site. Seventy-seven per cent were individual sessions, 14% group sessions and 1% were whole school sessions.

The accessibility to the service helped for a rural school where travel could act as a barrier, one school leader said. “Having somebody come to [our school] to work with our kids has been ideal.”

Students were referred to counselling, mostly by teachers, for reasons including their behaviour, anxiety, stress, trauma and relationships.

Māori students made up 60% of students receiving counselling.

Meanwhile, more boys accessed the programme – 55% – than girls.

“This could be because school staff usually refer students for observable issues like behaviour and boys are twice as likely to be referred for behaviour compared to girls,” the report said.

One parent reported seeing significant changes in their child. “They’ve not been so many tantrums any more,” they said.

Another parent said: “It’s great that my child has support and his feelings are validated at school and in a school environment. It gives him confidence to come to school.”

The programme was promising but more work was required to understand which elements were key to success for it to be effectively replicated in a wider range of schools, the report said.