Schools and mental illness

Teachers and guidance counsellors often play important roles for students.

However, according to Greater Essex County District School Board public relations officer Scott Scantlebury they find themselves limited in some areas.

According to the Windsor Essex County Health Unit, an estimated 3.9 per cent of local teens reported a mood disorder from 2009 to 2013. Although teachers and guidance counsellors may be a listening ear for students, Vice President Corporate and External Affairs Bill Marra of Hotel Dieu Grace Healthcare said schools are not equipped for these types of mental illnesses.

“Teachers are trained to be educators but oftentimes they find themselves playing the role of mom, dad, social worker, counsellor.” said Marra.

Aside from guidance counsellors, Scantlebury said the board has psychologists and mental health nurses who are available on an on-call basis.  However, Scantlebury said it prevents them from helping more students because there are only two mental health nurses and they mainly spend their time doing individual education plans for students.

“Certainly they could do that all day every day throughout the year and still not meet the demand but they work with that plus they have their on-call responsibilities for crisis situations,” said Scantlebury.

Even with psychologists and mental health nurses, Scantlebury said they are currently only equipped to treat short-term crises such as helping students cope with the death of a loved one.

For students who require further help, it could depend on the advice of the teachers or guidance counsellors they talk to, if any. In many cases, these staff members are responsible for identifying mental illness and alerting parents to what treatment options are available for their child.

With so many possible ways to identify mental disorders these days, Scantlebury said it is quite possible for communication to be lost along the way but stresses that all teachers and guidance counsellors are “well-intentioned” and “it’s just a matter of funding.”

The mental health nurses who are available have their offices at W.F. Herman Secondary School.

Piskovic said it is extremely important that everyone fills their proper role.

“Realistically, some of the issues that we’re seeing in regards to mental health do require a real significant level of expertise as far as dealing with those issues,” said Piskovic. “We have to be realistic about where our backgrounds and our expertise is and be able to recognize when it’s something that does really need something more than what could be provided by a guidance counsellor or a child youth worker or someone in house.”

Teachers can choose to participate in seminars to improve their teaching, but they aren’t mandatory. Some of these seminars can help with better identifying mental health issues according to Scantlebury.

Scantlebury said the training teachers do have is basic but that doesn’t mean all the responsibility should be on teachers when it comes to mental health issues. Scantlebury also said working together is what will make a difference.

“It’s got to be a cooperative effort not just with the public sector in health and education but the private sector as well…” said Scantlebury. “Mental illness is an illness like anything else. We’re working on cures for cancer and we certainly don’t want educators, teachers diagnosing physical illness so why mental?”

Piskovic said oftentimes it isn’t just on the school staff and mental health professionals to make sure students get help. The students have a great responsibility for their own well-being as well.

“I think what’s important for kids is to start recognizing when maybe how you feel starts to have an impact on your day to day,” said Piskovic. “Whether it’s your academic performance, whether it’s how you deal with things socially or emotionally and when that starts to happen, to make sure you talk to somebody and let them know.”

Piskovic said she sees a rise in mental illness and said that is why it is even more important for everyone to play their roles. That is also why she said students need to receive enough education about the mental health sector so they can look out for themselves, particularly during the summer months when they don’t have access to the school mental health professionals.