Calls for more mental health staff in Glasgow schools
Calls for more mental health staff to be made available in schools to spot early warning signs of problems facing children have been made by a Glasgow councillor.
A new contract for counselling services to ensure support is available in primary schools and secondary schools for the next four years was brought before the contracts and property committee last week.
The local authority has also hired an education psychologist on secondment for 12 months as well as 12 members of staff who are being trained in Low Arousal Interventions (LIA) until August this year.
During a recent operations and scrutiny committee, questions were asked about whether these new members of staff could be used to help young people struggling with their mental health while helping to alleviate the pressure on CAMHS.
Councillor Imran Alam said: “We know there are problems with mental health amongst young people.
“With regards to CAMHS referrals it is eight to 12 months before a young person is seen.What is being done to reduce the waiting list?
“It is mentioned in the report about the secondment of an educational psychologist and there are 12 staff which are being trained in the LIA.
“Could those 12 staff work across the board across all schools? Could they not be trained in looking for signs of mental health in young people?
“Maybe they can intervene at an earlier stage to take some of this pressure off the CAMHS service?”
A council officer confirmed that the CAMHS service belongs to HSCP and that the council does work closely with the children and young people’s services plan.
They said: “Our head of inclusion and psychological services do link very closely and there is work that has been ongoing together around that.
“In terms of the psychologist and the staff that are being trained, this is a specific project to our ASN sector so it is about young people with very complex needs and how they are being supported.
“My understanding is that that evaluation of that project is to support that being rolled out once it has been evaluated to see if it has had that successful impact.
“When this report comes back we can provide more information.”