Anxiety “off the charts” in our schools
Dr Chris Bowden, Lecturer in Victoria University’s School of Education, is not afraid to tell it like it is. His conviction that knowledge around mental health and wellbeing in children and adolescents in New Zealand needs to improve, is clear.
“There is a gap in New Zealand’s knowledge around child and adolescent mental health and wellbeing because it hasn’t been a high priority,” he says. “There is a flood of kids with these problems – so who is left to deal with these issues? Schools.” Chris says schools are under increasing pressure to provide support in these areas because parents lack the education and resources to do it on their own and the health system is underfunded and under-resourced.
“There is a lot more pressure on schools to respond to mental health issues because of the increasing needs of students—anxiety is off the charts,” he says. “There is more pressure on kids to fit in, be popular, be constantly connected to their peers, as well as the pressure of constant assessment at school. And they lack the coping skills and resiliency”.
Chris says past generations were better equipped with coping skills, were taught to be tough and had more realistic expectations of themselves and the world. “Now everyone expects to be a winner and to succeed. When they don’t meet their own and other’s expectations or when they experience set-backs and crises they struggle to cope. In the past kids would just get over it,” he says. The self-described Simon Cowell of lecturers, Chris says sometimes students get a shock when he tells them “Sorry, it’s a no from me”. Sometimes it is the first time they have heard that they’re not actually performing at an expected or high level and they aren’t winning.”
Chris sees education as a vital part of prevention and health promotion. He currently teaches Victoria’s Master of Educational Psychology course ‘Child and Adolescent Mental Health’, which focuses on advancing understanding of how educational psychologists can identify and support students who experience mental health issues using evidence-based practice. The course will now be offered as a Master of Education (MEd) course for teachers and school staff in 2018.
With increasing numbers of students presenting with challenging behaviours and complex mental health issues, Chris says the more teachers, school counsellors and support staff taking these courses at MEd level, the better. The MEd course will provide teachers and staff with a practical understanding of how to identify and support vulnerable students and support the mental health and wellbeing of all students, so that they are better able to cope, learn and be resilient. “Teachers and other school staff acting as ‘resilience champions’ in schools is something which is desperately needed. It’s about schools and communities understanding that if they don’t invest in early intervention and health promotion they will always have to provide crisis services,” he says.
“Education is the answer. Parents and schools need to work together to find better solutions for our kids.”