Can school nurses identify mental health needs early and provide effective advice and support?

Abstract

Aim: This article aims to explore and analyse primary research regarding the role of the school nurse in providing care for children and young people with mental health needs. Background: Children and young people have unique mental health needs that can affect their emotional, educational and physical development. Early identification and support for mental health needs are advocated to improve health and wellbeing outcomes. There are few UK-based primary research papers that address what role the school nurse may have in providing mental health care. Methods: A database search was conducted to identify research papers that discuss ‘school nurse’, ‘mental health’ with ‘children and young people’. Eight UK-based papers were identified, on which a thematic analysis was carried out. Results: Four themes were identified as important indicators for school nurses working with children and young people with mental health needs: help seeking preferences of children and young people, training and support needs of school nurses, service provision and capacity, and wider socio-economic determinants. Conclusions: School nurses can be effective when working with children and young people with mental health needs. As specialist public health nurses their primary area of work should be on the promotion of good mental health and the early identification and support for those who have poor mental health. To ensure effective support is given school nurses require further post-graduate training and regular supervision from a mental health specialist. However, workload structures would need to be managed to allow school nurses to be more visible and accessible within schools in order to build effective and trusting relationships. Implications for practice: As the public health role of the school nurse begins to encompass mental health needs it will be increasingly important to reflect upon collaborative working practices to deliver care, which meets the need of children and young people. This may include the use of modern technology, a work schedule that allows for needs to be met year round and improved communication and discussion between health, education and social care professionals.

Gender-based generalisations in school nurses’ appraisals of and interventions addressing students’ mental health

“…In accordance with other authors [ 34 , 38 ], we recommend stronger collaboration between groups of staff (school administration, teachers, nurses, and special needs personnel). Furthermore, school health service systems could consider using new technologies to improve services for students, as proposed by Bartlett [ 39 ]. Finally, it would be useful to consider programs that provide help regardless of gender, such as the person-centred approach suggested by Ekman et al [ 40 ] as an alternative to the DISA program.…”

School Nurses’ Experiences of Managing Young People With Mental Health Problems

“…Moreover, despite the drive for school nurses to support young peoples' emotional well-being, in the U.K. there are no national guidelines pertaining to their role in assessing young peoples' mental health. Indeed, a recent review of U.K.-based studies (Bartlett, 2015) found a lack of literature specifically related to the school nurse role and mental health provision. Thus, the purpose of this review was to examine international literature to determine school nurses' experiences of managing young people who are experiencing or displaying symptoms of mental health disorder, with the aim of determining how the experiences gained may influence the further development of the role of the school nurse within the U.K.…”

The role of mental health nurses in supporting young people’s mental health: a review of the literature

“…Even though mental health is becoming a considerable part of their role, many nurses are not adequately trained: this was a common theme in Pryjuachuk’s (2011) focus groups involving four school nursing teams. Bartlett’s (2015) study also empathises the importance of specialist mental health provision to support school nurses. Spratt et al (2010) confirmed an absence of inter-agency work across these interfaces noting that quality is not always evident or even sustained.…”

“…The absence of specialist mental health services such as Child Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) is reflected in studies by Pryjmachuk et al . (2011) and Bartlett (2015). It seems collaborative working with CAMHS is always reflective of particular individuals within the service and staffing changes inevitably affect partnerships with schools (Pryjmachuk et al , 2011).…”