“Caring involvement”: a core concept in youth counselling in school health services

Abstract

This article aims at providing theory for use in school health services. By exploring the accounts of young people on helpful interaction during diffi cult life periods, the study intended to capture the characteristics of helpful support viewed from the young persons' perspectives. Forty-six students aged 16-22 years were interviewed with a semi-structured interview that focused on how the young persons describe and perceive diffi cult periods and life events. The study evolved from a larger action research project designed to develop counselling in school health services. The grounded theory method provided the analytical guidelines. When asked to refl ect retrospectively on what had been helpful during diffi cult periods or stressful situations, somebody who cared about them was highlighted by the respondents. Caring covered personal interactions that varied from direct and active intervention to providing a space for refl ection and learning. We found that the concept caring involvement captured essential dimensions and properties of what the young persons judged as vital in adult support. We suggest that counselling in school health services should be informed by a theory of caring involvement characterized by: a personal approach, the practitioner's readiness for being active, attention to the young person's agency, and balancing active involvement and attending to agency.

Swedish school nurses’ perspectives on caring for and promoting the health of adolescents with mental health problems – A qualitative study the Health of Adolescents with Mental Health Problems – A Qualitative Study

“…A caring relationship was seen as an essential basis for this health dialogue so that the students would feel confident and respected and thus dare to narrate about their thoughts and worries. [20,21] This is in line with the ethos of caritative caring, in which the nature of the caring relationship is determined by the nurses' ethical foundation and their motives for caring, responsibility, and will to invite a person into a caring relationship. The basic motive of caring is to alleviate suffering and to promote life, health and respect for human dignity.…”

“…[19,20] A caring school nurse was perceived as supportive of adolescents. [21] From the adolescents' point of view, confidentiality and trust were important factors when seeking help. [10] Factors such as attentiveness, respect, authenticity, accessibility and continuity were important in order to create an effective health-promoting dialogue with the students.…”

The influence of living conditions on adolescent girls’ health

“…In our study, the girls seemed to need somewhere to talk with somebody about everyday life as a way to enable well-being. The places need to have a low threshold for talking about health, as for example with the school nurse (Golsäter, Sidenvall, Lingfors, & Enskär, 2011; Langaard & Toverud, 2009). It seems important to have places where they can discuss health issues in a respectful and open atmosphere (Golsäter, Sidenvall, Lingfors, & Enskär, 2010), and where they can talk about their everyday life and what it means for them at the moment.…”

They need to be recognized as a person in everyday life: Teachers’ and helpers’ experiences of teacher–student relationships in upper secondary school

“…This finding is in line with studies from the mental health field that emphasize the importance of “the small things” that make a big difference (Davidson & Johnson, 2013 ; Ness, 2016 ). Other studies have found emotional support, care, empathy and warmth as important concepts to promote students’ mental health and prevent dropout (Cornelius-White, 2007 ; Croninger & Lee, 2001 ; Langaard & Toverud, 2009 ; Wang et al, 2013 ). Although these emotional concepts were not identical with the concept of recognition and adapting to students’ needs, they were similar and reflect the complexity of emotional qualities of TSR.…”