Teach Secondary 13.8

this. She instead worries that she might have anxiety, and resolves to keep an eye out for other listed symptoms. This makes her ruminate over her mental health, which in turn leads to her feeling down. It also stops her spending so much time on those things that are actually good for her wellbeing – connecting with friends, sleeping well, playing sport – as she’s increasingly looking inwards, not outwards. Her mental health starts to get worse. Emma now has diagnosable levels of anxiety. Mixed evidence The government has committed to placing a mental health professional in every secondary school. “ Early access to care, support and ongoing treatment is incredibly important,” said the then ShadowEducation Secretary Bridget Phillipson, ahead of the summer’s General Election. “ That’s why Labour would make sure mental health support is [offered] directly within our schools.” For some teenagers – those already struggling with anxiety or depression, and who require professional support to alleviate their symptoms – this may be a helpful move. But there are two important questions that need answering. Do all schools have enough pupils with serious mental health issues to require in-school provision? And, more importantly, does placing evenmore attention onmental health in schools risk making those teenagers who are currently fine focus their attention inwards and start to over-interpret their ‘symptoms’? Some possible routes through the mental health quagmire include co- designing interventions with students and targeting them appropriately. There’s some evidence to show that interventions are less likely to cause harmwhen they’re targeted at older adolescents and adults. We could also ensure that mental health programmes are delivered by trained professionals, and not teachers. Perhaps, though, we need to ask a more fundamental question. Should busy, resource-strapped schools be trying to runmental health interventions, for which evidence is – at best –mixed? Or should they focus on teaching? Rolling the dice Leadership teams face a dilemma. Students learn better when they have good mental health, but teachers are not trained psychotherapists – and as we’ve seen, some programmes may even cause more harm than good. We don’t yet have enough information to know in advance which those are, and the humanmind is exceptionally complex. This means that any school running a universal mental health intervention will effectively be rolling the dice with its students’ wellbeing. Instead, schools may be better off focusing on what they do well, much of which we know can play an important role in propping up students’ wellbeing. Students have better outcomes when they feel connected to their schools; when they experience a positive classroom climate (through high quality interactions with teachers, for example, routines and consistently applied rules), and when their schools are able to minimise physical aggression and bullying (see tinyurl.com/ts138-TP7) . Focusing on those areas would also free up counselling and support services for those with serious pre-existing mental health problems. Diluting access to such services for all students risks limiting their availability to those who really need them. School leaders should familiarise themselves with the evidence. And so should the Education Secretary. IN BRIEF WHAT’S THE ISSUE? Genuine concern over widely publicised declines in youth mental health have prompted schools to offer their own in-house or externally sourced mental health checks and interventions. WHAT’S BEING SAID? The government has publicly committed to placing mental health professionals in every school, yet a number of studies seem to suggest that the kind of interventions provided within schools can be ineffective, or even counter-productive. WHAT’S REALLY HAPPENING? School-based mental health provision has been effective in some cases, but a general lack of multi-disciplinary expertise, combined with social media messaging, can lead to instances of self-misdiagnosis among students. THE TAKEAWAY Schools are already engaged in work that can significantly contribute in positive ways to students’ levels of health and wellbeing (through building camaraderie and establishing boundaries, for example), with existing resources perhaps likely do more good if directed towards those ends. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Matilda Gosling is a social researcher and author; her book, Teenagers: The Evidence Base is available for pre-order (£16.99, Swift Press, published January 2025) 13 teachwire.net/secondary H O T TO P I C