A collaborative approach to support learners with mental health challenges in under-resourced schools: a secondary data analysis.
Year: 2022
Type: dissertation
Abstract: The burden of mental health problems is rising affecting both the functional and social lives of \nyoung and adult individuals. Given the high rates of student mental health difficulties \nworldwide and the escalation of incidences in schools, homes and communities, where learners \nfight with their peers, educators and families, specialist support is sparse within the Department \nof Education. Thus, it is imperative to explore the collaborative support provided to learners \nwith mental health problems in schools. This secondary data analysis is about exploring the \ncollaborative support to learners experiencing mental health challenges in under-resourced \nschools. The Biopsychosocial theory was used as a theoretical framework for this review. Data \nwas collected from peer-reviewed publications and government policies. This review seeks to \nunderstand the challenges that are experienced by learners with mental health in underresourced \nschools and to establish how learners with mental health challenges are identified \nin schools. It also explored how learners are coping with mental health in schools as well as to \nascertain the nature and extent of the collaborative support provided to learners with mental \nhealth and psychosocial concerns in under-resourced schools. \nThe review found that there is ineffective and inefficient collaborative support provided to \nlearners with mental health in under-resourced schools and that there is insufficient training to \nequip educators with skills to identify and support learners with mental health problems and \ncoping strategies. The findings of the review recommended that the School Based Support \nTeam ensures the using of the Screening, Identification Assessment and Support policy as a \nstandardised tool to identify learners experiencing mental health challenges to enable the \nprovision of relevant support and that in-service training of educators be mandatory to equip \nthem with strategies to identify and support learners with mental health challenges. It also \nrecommended that educators and other educational support professionals to acquire means \nwithin which to work collaboratively to benefit learners with mental health challenges.
Author: Dunge, Nelisiwe Elizabeth.
Language: English
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W6980607309