Teachers fear they are making suicide crisis worse
Many teachers have endured the heartbreak of knowing a student who has taken their own life and a lack of counselling resources in the state’s schools has left them unprepared for how to deal with the suicide crisis.
NSW
Don't miss out on the headlines from NSW. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Anger was not an emotion Alena Farrugia thought her youth mental health first aid course would provoke in the state’s teachers.
Yet it happens every session. It’s not anger at the course or at herself — rather that the teachers have not been given this training earlier.
Ms Farrugia’s Beyond Limits Learning Clinic has run more than 100 YMHFA sessions for about 3000 teachers.
Many of those teachers have endured the heartbreak of knowing a student who has taken their own life.
She said the state’s educators are desperate for knowledge on how to better deal with a student who is in distress.
“Not a session goes by when numerous staff members do not express their concern that this training is not mandatory,” Ms Farrugia said.
“Sometimes it is extremely emotional and there’s anger that this information has been out there for a long time but not accessed adequately.
“We have had teachers talk about having lost students to suicide and realising now that there were some things that they did which were not as helpful as what they would’ve liked to have been.”
GET MORE CONNECTED:
What you get as a subscriber to The Daily Telegraph
Download our app and stay up to date anywhere, anytime
The Sunday Telegraph is campaigning to make the mental health first aid course mandatory for all teachers and increase the number of counsellors in NSW schools.
A lack of counselling resources has been impacting on school staff “who may be left to deal with wellbeing needs of students, even if they are not prepared or qualified to do so”, according to the NSW P&C.
The campaign has the support of leading mental health advocates Professors Ian Hickie and Pat McGorry.
The mental health first aid course costs between $200 and $450 per person for two days training.
It’s about how to see changes in thoughts, feelings and behaviours and how to react appropriately.
People are given techniques on how to approach a child in a caring and empathetic and legally appropriate manner.
Ms Farrugia said the system is very ad hoc, such that “we have one school that gets trained up but the school down the road does not get that training at all”.
“Teaching is a very hard job and we need to support teachers,” she said.
“The only reason someone teaches is because they care. We need to make sure that we are looking after them so they can look after us.”
There have been over 2600 YMHFA courses run in NSW since the course was launched in 2007, and high schools are by far the most common setting.
Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said the government is “partnering with leading mental health organisations to support schools in delivering best practice early intervention in mental health support, including a partnership with Headspace to deliver training to build the mental health literacy of teachers and staff, students and their families”.
“The SAFEMinds and Suicide Risk Continuum Training aims to increase knowledge of mental health and focuses on identification, support and response,” she said.
Do you need help? Phone Lifeline on 13 11 14; Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636 or the Kids Helpline on 1800 551 800
Originally published as Teachers fear they are making suicide crisis worse