Counselling in Highland schools 

An in-house school counselling service is working to support the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people across the Highland area.

Cllr John Finlayson, Education Chair said: “Counselling is just one piece of a whole school approach to supporting mental health and wellbeing. This is a service which is fully funded by the Scottish Government and available to children from age 10. The information in this report and discussion at committee today highlights some of the main challenges facing our children and young people in their wellbeing. It is vital that we have the provisions and options in place for our pupils which can best help them, whether this is through digital assets or through more direct means, such as counselling, both in person and online meetings.

“I wish to thank everyone involved in establishing this in-house provision so quickly, and in particular to our Psychological Services team for their expertise, training, and partnership working to manage the delivery of these key interventions to support mental health and wellbeing.”

An online referral system has been established that supports monitoring of progress of children and young people and enhances communication between school and counsellor.

The main reasons for referral to school counselling across Highland has been found to align with those to other mental health services. Anxiety remains the main concern for children and young people. Other main reasons for referral to school counselling include low mood, emotional/behavioural needs, self-harm, body image, and trauma. These key issues have helped shape the content of awareness raising training delivered by specialist services.

Visit www.wellbeinghighland.co.uk for support materials, information, resources, and training.