Adding value to education through improved mental health: A review of the research evidence on the effectiveness of counselling for children and young people

Abstract

This paper is set against the backdrop of an increasing number of strategies and policies developed by the Department for Education and Skills in the U.K. regarding the promotion of positive mental health in schools and the recognition of the value of improving mental health in relation to children's learning, achievement, attendance and behaviour. The aim of the paper is to present the results from a systematic review of the research evidence on counselling children and young people and discuss these results in relation to the educational context and the added value to be gained in addressing the mental health needs of children and young people. A systematic review methodology is used to assess the outcome research literature. The review is structured around a range of counselling issues and four groups of counselling approaches: cognitive-behavioural, person-centred, psychodynamic and creative therapies. Results indicate that all four approaches to counselling are effective for children and young people across the full range of counselling issues. However, more high quality published research evidence was located for the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioural counselling than other approaches, identifying significant gaps in the evidence bases for these approaches. Other gaps in the evidence include research into counselling for school related issues and self-harm. 9•97

Strengthening classroom emotional support for children following a family member’s death

“…Based on the underlying tenets of research-based Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), bibliotherapy has increasingly grown into a recognized therapeutic strategy to address and change children's problematic thinking and subsequent behavior (Pattison & Harris, 2006).…”

Impact Evaluation of a School-based Counselling Intervention in Northern Ireland: Is it Effective for Pupils Who Have Been Bullied?

“…Pattison and Harris (2006) concluded from a review that counselling can provide effective support for children and young people dealing with a range of issues. Furthermore, evaluative school counselling research carried out across the United Kingdom over the past decade (Baginsky, 2003;Cooper, 2009;Education and Training Inspectorate, 2005;Fox & Butler, 2003 confirms that school counselling is highly regarded by a range of stakeholders including children and young people, their schools and teachers as well as parents and other professionals.…”

“…The provision of counselling in schools to support pupils in dealing with a range of school-related and other life issues has experienced considerable growth in recent years (Adamson et al, 2006;Cooper et al, 2010;Pattison & Harris, 2006), in particular across schools in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Pattison and Harris (2006) concluded from a review that counselling can provide effective support for children and young people dealing with a range of issues.…”

Fast forwarding Higher Education Institutions for Global Challenges

“…Overseas research on e-counselling also gives valuable feedback on the technical aspects of evaluation criteria such as functions, content, type of pages and user interface (Kuittineen et al 2001), and it produced valuable insights into future system development for digital educational resources in the current digital turn of decentralised world (Mills 2010 ). The benefi ts of using e-counselling are well researched (Tuti Iryani et al 2005 ;Vaughan 2007 ); its benefi ts of adding value to higher education are evident (Pattison and Harris 2006 ).…”

“…From a holistic perspective, both traditional and e-counselling approaches share the same basic functions of counselling, namely, preventive, developmental and remedial functions. Counselling does not only serve as a remedial function which involves dealing solely with intervention when problems are identifi ed, it also involves preventive and developmental dimensions as most young people experience a relatively untroubled psychological development (Pattison and Harris 2006 ). Developmental dimensions of counselling include career awareness, development of various transferable skills such as time management, etc.…”