A qualitative analysis of the experiences, training, and support needs of school mental health workers regarding student trauma

Abstract

Objective School mental health workers are ideally placed to respond to student trauma based on their mental health expertise and the impact of childhood trauma on learning, classroom behaviour, and school relationships. The current study aimed to explore the experiences, and support and training needs of school mental health workers regarding student trauma. Method Thirteen school mental health workers, including school counsellors and wellbeing staff, participated in semi‐structured interviews and their responses were analysed using thematic analysis. Results Although participants identified helpful factors, such as consistency in routines and procedural support from colleagues, the most prominent themes in participants’ narratives reflected the challenges of providing optimal training for staff, and support to students and staff regarding student traumatic exposure. Conclusions The findings suggest a need for further research regarding the development and ongoing implementation of multi‐tiered trauma‐informed support, training practices and protocols for school staff and school mental health workers.

Building Trauma Informed Teachers: A Constructivist Grounded Theory Study of Remote Primary School Teachers’ Experiences With Children Living With the Effects of Complex Childhood Trauma

“…This study found that participants observed and understood that complex childhood trauma impacted upon children's behavior and learning, congruent with previous research (Davis et al, 2018;Berger, 2019;Berger and Samuel, 2020;Collier et al, 2020;Wall, 2020). In this study, participants' accounts of their experiences touched on how they understood complex childhood trauma as manifesting in both externalizing and internalizing behaviors (Doll, 2019;Splett et al, 2019;Olivier et al, 2020;Miller and Berger, 2021), and they identified that lower academic achievement required differentiation in teaching (Deunk et al, 2018;Smale-Jacobse et al, 2019;Miller and Berger, 2021).…”

“…This study is one of the first to report on teachers' experiences of working in remote schools with children living with the effects of complex childhood trauma. It builds on previous work of Brunzell et al (2018), Howard (2019, Stokes and Brunzell (2019), and Berger and Samuel (2020) but is the first to develop a theory that can be used by universities and education systems as a tentative conceptual foundation for preparing teachers to work with children living with the effects of complex childhood trauma.…”

“…It is important, therefore, that universities and education systems provide education and training on the topic of complex childhood trauma including its definition, cause, and effects. We join with others in calling upon these institutions to play a stronger role in raising awareness and building professional capacity to understand and respond to complex childhood trauma with effective practices (Berger, 2019;Brunzell et al, 2019;Howard, 2019;Berger and Samuel, 2020). This would ideally begin in pre-service education and continue with ongoing professional development via in-service education (Howard, 2019).…”

Teachers’ experiences and recommendations to support refugee students exposed to trauma

“…Although research is growing to show the effectiveness and sustainability of TIP in schools (Berger, 2019), limited research has been conducted to explore the strengths and challenges from the perspective of teachers responding to students who have experienced trauma and with diverse cultural needs (Miller & Berger, 2020). Earlier research with teachers has shown that teachers and mental health school staff require more training and assistance to appropriately respond to and support students who have been exposed to trauma (Alisic, 2012;Berger & Samuel, 2020). This study aimed to extend on this research and to be one of the first known studies to explore the experiences of teachers from schools in Australia who have worked with students from refugee backgrounds and who have been exposed to trauma.…”

Qualitative experiences of Australian mental health staff with students exposed to domestic violence

“…This is evidenced by symptoms among mental health staff of anxiety, avoidance of reminders about a student’s traumatic experiences, irritable behaviour, and intrusive negative thoughts about a student’s traumatic experiences (Bride, 2007). Although there is a lack of literature in the area of school mental health and wellbeing staff and students’ DV exposure, the existing research has found that school mental health staff require more training and support to respond to student issues of mental illness and trauma exposure (Berger & Samuel, 2020; Powers et al., 2014).…”