MENTAL health in schools must not be “extra-curricular”, a leading charity claims.
Launching its Make it Count campaign, the Mental Health Foundation Scotland is calling for all teachers to undergo mental health training by 2020.
It also wants the Scottish Government to commit one hour of teaching time per week to “quality” personal and social education sessions, with specialist support workers to be embedded in every school within two years.
The charity’s own research found 60% of youngsters have felt overwhelmed or “unable to cope” over pressures to succeed or fear of making mistakes.
Half have been similarly affected by body image, while one quarter of parents say their children have been stressed by academic and exam pressures, with one third suffering stress as a result of social anxiety.
Recent results showed 8000 children in Scotland with severe mental health problems were waiting to see a specialist at the end of June 2018, including 2116 who had been waiting for more than 18 weeks.
The Scottish Government announced more school-based counsellors and mental health first aid training for teachers in its programme for government, but Toni Giugliano of the Mental Health Foundation Scotland, pictured, said: “Mental ill health is on the rise and schools must be equipped to respond and prevent distress by helping young people build resilience and cope with difficult situations. Unless we do that we’ll continue to see more children in crisis. Unless we take action now we will fail the next generation right at the start of their lives.”
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