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Video: US school psychologists share knowledge
(ABC News)
Australian schools need more psychologists to combat a crisis of cyber-bullying, self-harm and suicide attempt among students, experts say.
With one school psychologist for every 3,000 students in some states and territories, psychologists say students are not getting the mental health support they need.
Australian and overseas experts in school psychology are meeting in Melbourne today to discuss the issue.
Dr Monika Thielking, a researcher at Swinburne University and convenor of the Psychologists In Schools Interest Group, is speaking at the event.
Dr Thielking says Australian schools need more psychologists.
"We have ratios of anything between one to 500, right up to one psychologist to 3,000 students," she told ABC News Breakfast.
"It is really low. Mental health is real and it's an issue we should be taking seriously, and early intervention for children is important."
She says student issues range from cyber bulling to anxiety and depression.
"Cyber-bullying is huge," she said.
"We also have in some areas a real crisis around young people who are self-harming and suicide attempt as well.
"Particularly in remote areas of Australia there are children that aren't being given the types of mental health support that they need."
Dr Thielking is calling for action from the state and federal governments.
"We see a big need for psychologists in schools in Australia," she said.
"We know that students that are mentally healthy do better at school, and psychologists are there not only to diagnose problems, but to also assist parents and teachers themselves in creating a positive school environment.
Call for reform
Professor Mark Terjeson from St John's University in New York is also attending the conference. He will be speaking about the highly-regarded American school counselling services.
"In the US there are both state and national standards for school psychology training, and there are also international standards," he said.
"That is one of the things we have been looking at, to see what standards could best meet the needs of the students in schools in Australia.
"We do need to be careful in taking a model that exists in other countries and assuming the same model will work in Australia.
"There are very unique aspects of the school setting and family setting and the problems children may have, so we need to be careful to collaborate a working relationship to build the profession to best meet the needs of students."
Professor Terjeson says historically, school psychology focuses on assessing and identifying students with learning disabilities.
"However, we have seen a shift in the last five to 10 years of more mental health services dealing with anxiety, dealing with depression, and the prevalence of autism internationally has continued to increase as well," he said.
"So we have made shifts in terms of our training to focus on some of those areas and those are things that we are working on developing here also."
Topics:
psychology,
schools,
suicide,
australia,
melbourne-3000
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