er, no, this is not what is happening, schools are not equipped to provide mental health support at all, schools are putting a few teachers through a few hours on what to do to hold it together for a child in crisis for a few hours or days, before mental health services take over, and these are very specific, for children who already have a diagnosis, such as anorexia, OCD, psychosis, etc literally, I have done this training, and it is less than an hour on each condition, and I left the course, as I could forsee being expected to take long term responsibility for situations that require medical intervention, purely on the basis that I once looked at a power point breifly.
It really is what is happening.
I don't agree with it at all.
The threshold to get to see CAMHS and specialists is ridiculous and the wait times are appalling. Families can be calling out for help and support for months, and nobody sees their child.
So what ends up happening is that children who need proper support get sent to learning mentors/TAs and teachers with a bit of extra cpd/a member of staff who has done a post-grad diploma or certificate level training in low level young people's mental health, and then all the work that could have been done by professional specialists doesn't get done, and some of these young people end up in crisis and then, finally, CAMHS takes notice.
I'm not claiming schools manage complex OCD/eating disorders etc long term, but the reality is that schools are picking up the pieces of a truly ruined mental health provision for children and young people. Children are missing out on the support they need because parents end up battling a system that keeps telling them to go away and come back when there's a bigger issue.