Possibly One for health professionals - counselling services in school

[CakeInAJar]

If somebody was offering counselling services in a school for pupils (ages from 3-18) - listening their problems, giving advice, feeding back to staff & parents, giving clinical recommendations (eg seek a prescription for anti-depressants or a referral) and advising parents what to do ti improve their mental health at home - what qualifications would you expect them to have? Is a nursing qualification sufficient or would they need a qualification in counselling/child counselling/child psychology?

Anyone?
A but concerned about what’s happening in my DC’s school

Definitely the latter as a minimum.

The list of areas covered by that service seem as if some may be unusual, but a school counsellor is often someone qualified in counselling, likely a member of a professional body such as BACP. School counsellors may also be working for an organisation providing counselling, when the counsellor may be well into their training but not yet fully qualified - though undergoing supervision. I wouldn't expect it to be someone qualified to diagnose anything, or to recommend medication, but would expect them to advise when they believe seeing a GP etc would be advisable. The school should have a clear policy available for you on confidentiality for the child/young person, which would include any comms with parents or teachers.

Thanks both

This is a mental health nurse counselling children with no additional qualifications, employed directly by the school

Are you sure they’re offering counselling as opposed to support, because at a glance everything else sounds ok

In fact it sounds like a far better service than most of the young people I see get at school

Are you sure it's counselling?

The list you have provided sounds exactly like the sort of things a mental health nurse would do.

We have mental health support workers coming in doing intervention work with pupils, but they aren’t mental health nurses and what they offer isn’t called counselling.

Is it definitely counselling they are doing?

Yea this? What's the concern? If only all schools could offer such support!

Lots of mental health nurses have additional training in therapeutic models including CBT, DBT, and others as well as having training in things like motivational interviewing or basic transactional analysis skills. Why do you think they aren’t qualified?

Its a good question but in your case OP, the person providing MH or emotional health support/intervention/counselling whatever you want to call it has at least a clear qualification with MH experience

I cant tell you the number of meeetings we have with schools where 'counselling' is offered and I say 'what model is being used, can we see the feedback/outcomes' or what qualifications has the worker got, the school often dont know

Anyone can call themselves a counsellor and people get a bit caught up between therapy and counselling, lots of wooly explanations on what the difference is.

Usually we're just told 'we're just building a relationship with the child at the moment'.

I think if a school has qualified MH practitioner with a nursing experience and qualification, who actually gives clinical and practical feedback to school and parents, that is very helpful

A mental health nurse sounds qualified for such a role. A counselling service can mean many things. In fact often children are given pastoral support by teachers or family support workers who have no qualifications or experience of mental health problems. The alternative to this is often no one or waiting it out on CAMHS waiting lists. Schools cannot afford to pay for the services of counsellors.

Counsellors don't feed back to staff/parents routinely. Only break confidentiality if it's a safeguarding issue and then that's via the established safeguarding protocol. So it doesn't sound like counselling to me.

Counsellors certainly don't give advice on prescriptions.

A mental health nurse is prob more qualified than a counsellor.

Sounds great. I don’t see the issue.

Not always.

I'm a masters qualified counsellor for children and young people.

Our school uses mental health nurse and a counsellor. They do different things and have different relationships with the children.

Counsellors as a general rule do not give advice and recommendations, as PP have said that's more a mental health nurse.
Mental health support often gets labelled 'counselling' when it involves talking, but it's not counselling.
Having a qualified mental health nurse to do the role you describe sounds right. Many schools don't employ anyone with formal mental health training to that level, more like a short course.

The tasks you describe sound suited to a mental health nurse rather than counsellor or therapist.

I agree it sounds like an appropriate role for a qualified mental health nurse.

Counsellors shouldn't give advice or discuss what was happened in the session with anyone unless someone is in danger or its a SG issue
Ask the school what qualifications they have, that's quite acceptable