Who comes to the school counsellor and what do they talk about?

Abstract

Public and political attention have recently been given to concerns over the mental health and wellbeing of young people in New Zealand. Guidance counsellors, embedded as they are within school communities, are well positioned to offer professional mental health support. In addition, school counsellors report an increasingly busy and complex workload. This article reports on a research project that looked at who comes to see the school counsellor and what issues they talk about. Over a 50-day period in 2018, secondary school counselling services across 11 schools in the North and South Islands of New Zealand collected data specific to their counselling work. Results indicate that counsellors are widely used by students at all year levels, and that the majority of students were self-referring. However, nearly 30% of students wanting an appointment had to wait three or more school days to see a counsellor, the majority of those waiting six or more days. In 9 out of the 11 schools Māori accessed the counselling service at a higher rate than their percentage of the school roll. In 4 of the 11 schools New Zealand European students accessed the counselling service at a higher rate than their percentage in the school. Minority ethnic groups were underrepresented. Five issues--family, anxiety, school, peer friendships, and depression--were the most frequently reported. These results have implications for schools in a wide number of areas, including staffing levels in counselling departments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of New Zealand Journal of Counselling is the property of New Zealand Association of Counsellors and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)