Area school board adding staff to help with students’ mental health

The region’s largest school board says it is boosting the number of staff it has to help students with mental health issues linked to two years of anxious pandemic learning.

“We are actively recruiting for a psychological services team that includes various positions, not just psychologists,” a spokesperson for the Thames Valley District school board said. “But we do have access to the psychological services for every school in Thames Valley.”

The comments come in the wake of a recent report by the education advocacy group People for Education that found hundreds of Ontario principals say they require more support for students’ mental health.

The survey uncovered that the percentage of elementary and secondary schools lacking access to a psychologist has doubled since 2013 to about 30 per cent.

The annual survey of 1,000 schools found 91 per cent of principals said they “needed support for the mental health and well-being of students, post pandemic.”

John Marinelli, the principal at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic secondary school who didn’t take part in the survey, said in education, “there is never enough of everything.

“However we’re doing a very good job at supporting students, given the resources we have,” he said. “We continue to work with our students every day in terms of wellness. We have programs in our school to help students on a daily basis.”

A support team made up of administrators, guidance counselors and social workers “support our students in every way they need,” Marinelli said.

Andrea Harvey, student mental health lead for the London District Catholic school board, said it has coaches to help with stress management and coping strategies in the classrooms and mental health awareness lesson plans for teachers. Students also are shown how to reach out for help.

“We have social workers assigned to every school across our board,” she said. “Principals and students have access to connect and consult with those folks.”

The principals surveyed also said at the beginning of the pandemic their main focus was safety, but this year mental health and well-being supports “are their top priority,” the report said.

According to Statistics Canada, mental health in young people aged 12 to 17 has been on the decline. Back in 2019, 73 per cent in that age group described their mental health as very good or excellent, the report said. By 2022 that number had dropped to 61 percent.

Another study, by the Center for Addiction and Mental Health, uncovered that 59 per cent of Ontario students said the pandemic had made them “depressed about their future.”

Lucas Andersen, student mental health lead for the Thames Valley board, said he was “not surprised there is an increased need of supports in schools.

“However I am also very aware of what I am doing how much preventative work is being done in schools to support students,” he said. ”We do a lot of work around healthy relationship building, really getting to know students, which is an integral part of being able to support their safety.”

Principals also raised the alarm about the mental health of their staff who are experiencing burnout leading to mental health issues and increased absenteeism.

In some cases, principals report they have funding for mental health workers, but none are available in their communities.

Christina MacEvoy was recently hired by Thames Valley as staff mental health and well-being lead amid a spike in staff absences and medical leaves.

She said the People for Education report “was validating to me because these are challenges that are being faced across the country in terms of support staff and students.

“We are faced with staffing challenges across the board, so when there is an increase in mental health or well-being concerns, there is obviously an increase in absenteeism,” she said.

“What I hear is the impact of where people need to take time off for their own well-being. . . obviously there’s an absence that needs to be filled. That is where we struggle. It puts the additional burden on the staff.”

[email protected]

Twitter.com/HeatheratLFP