Year 7 students suffering high school anxiety need help
PRIMARY school students moving into high school need extra support from teachers and parents to stop episodes of anxiety and depression.
NSW
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PRIMARY school students making the transition to high school need to be given extra support from teachers and parents to stop episodes of anxiety and depression being triggered by the upheaval.
Mental health advocates are calling on the state government to start running early intervention programs for Year 7 students making the switch to high school after seeing an increase in anxiety and depression in these age groups.
It comes as schools report more children as young as eight are struggling with self-harm and anxiety.
Professor Brin Grenyer and Dr Michelle Townsend from the University of Wollongong told the NSW Committee on Children and Young People there needed to be a focus on “the transition to high school”.
They said primary school teachers also need to be given more training to identify issues such as anxiety and depression.
“Training and professional development for education staff in primary schools is required as there is an increase of self-harm and suicidal behaviours occurring in primary schools identified by staff,” Professor Grenyer said.
He said half of all mental health problems manifested by the time a child had turned 14.
Black Dog Institute mental health researcher Dr Janine Clarke said the transition from primary to high school was a “high-risk period”.
She said early intervention could help stop more serious problems from manifesting.
“The difficulty for parents with identifying problems is that it can be hard to distinguish between the normal adolescent behaviour and mental health issues,” Dr Clarke said.
“Any transition can trigger problems and for some children this is one of the first big life changes.”
Ross Bark, director of Best Friends, runs programs across NSW helping children make the switch from primary to high school.
“Students face a lot of anxiety about this time period which can spiral into more serious issues,” he said.
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“In the workshops we do we sometimes see children who haven’t coped well with the transition to the point where they no longer want to come to school.”
“In primary school they’ve developed an established group of friends and understand how they fit into those groups, so the change can be overwhelming for a young person.”
Mr Bark said transition programs were mostly being run in private schools.
“I think we really need them across the board, because often the parents and the child themselves aren’t equipped to deal with the issues that arise,” he said.
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