Promoting social and emotional wellbeing and responding to mental health problems in schools

Abstract

There is a new emphasis on positive approaches to human development, which recognises the value in exploring human strengths and resilience rather than just weakness and pathology. It focuses on proactive human wellbeing and flourishing, within which problems can be more effectively addressed. While this approach is an effective shift in perspective, there is also a need to fully recognise the serious mental health problems that are a concern in all societies, with large, and possibly growing rates of conditions such as depression, anxiety, suicide and conduct disorder occurring in both young and old across the world. Low levels of wellbeing and high levels of mental health problems have adverse consequences for all aspects of health and development of the young, and are usually the precursor to difficulties in adulthood, and are strongly connected with poverty, disadvantage and deprivation, both as causes and as outcomes. In practice the mental health needs of the young are often largely unmet, particularly in developing countries. Given this gap in provision, and supported by the link between wellbeing and learning which has been demonstrated in research in the more affluent countries, some efforts have been made to explore the role of the school in helping students, staff and communities cultivate wellbeing and tackle mental health problems. This paper outlines the principles extracted from accumulating research evidence from developed countries on what schools can best do. It can be summarised as a need for a coherent, joined up, whole school approach, which balances both positive/universal and problem centred/targeted approaches, and ensures an inclusive and ‘connected’ school climate, particularly in relation to stigma and prejudice. The principles may well be of some relevance in developing countries, where the evidence base is currently extremely thin, although this should not be automatically assumed and more work is needed.