Paediatric mental health training to school teachers in London, UK

Abstract

Introduction

The British National Foundation for Educational Research poll found that two thirds of school teachers feel they lack the appropriate training to help identify mental health issues in pupils.¹ National Foundation for Education Research, http://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/DFE-June2015.

I contacted 10 schools in London and teachers gave similar responses to the above poll, stating teachers did not feel confident identifying or managing common mental health issues in children and adolescents aged 5–18.

Aim

To deliver mental health training in a user friendly way to teachers and enable them to identify common mental health issues in young people.

Objectives

Address underlying concerns teachers have regarding pupils mental health. Discuss strategies to manage common mental health issues.

Method

I delivered a 2-hour training workshop to 25 teachers in two different schools in London, June 2016. The training included a lecture on emotional/behavioural and communication disorders in children. There was interactive discussion with teachers, discussing various scenarios, such as children becoming tearful, showing limited eye contact and displaying aggressive behaviour. We discussed how teachers were dealing with this and how better they could manage the situation.

Results

I got excellent feedback from teachers, 100% of teachers found the training very useful and would like to have more training of this kind in the future. A multidisciplinary approach is needed to improve the management of mental health in young people.

Conclusions

There is a gap in the knowledge teachers have on mental health within the young people and the stigma of mental health makes it more difficult for teachers to address these issues.

Disclosure of interest

The author has not supplied his/her declaration of competing interest.