Increasing students’ positive help-seeking behaviours
In 2023, the top reasons that young people between the ages of 5 and 17 called Kids Help Phone’s professional phone counselling lines were to speak about mental / emotional health, family changes and relationships, suicidal thoughts, peer and partner relationships, and school-related issues.
Despite these challenges, many young people do not receive the support they may need and deserve, potentially due to fear of stigma and confidentiality, or a lack of understanding of where to gain support. To improve students’ understanding of mental health and encourage help-seeking behaviours, it is vital that students feel comfortable in using mental health services, including those offered in schools. The role of a school counsellor presents the opportunity and responsibility to acknowledge the struggles youth face and help them navigate those challenges. School counsellors work to bring conversations about mental health into the classroom, promote and provide accessible, inclusive resources to students, and encourage positive help-seeking behaviours. Their work is incredibly important in the support and development of students’ mental and emotional well-being, and their impact cannot be overstated.
Gaining Knowledge
For students who schedule and attend meetings with school counsellors, a basic understanding of mental health or support usually already exists. One-on-one meetings with a counsellor can offer a significant level of support. However, there are many students who may never reach out to book meetings or openly share with school counsellors because of stigma, fear or misunderstanding. Increasing students’ knowledge and understanding of mental health and well-being can encourage healthy help-seeking behaviours and broaden the reach of school counsellors across the student body. One method of building this knowledge is bringing conversations about mental health and well-being into the classroom, using programs such as Counsellor in the Classroom and Brighter Days: An Indigenous Wellness Program, which are two available resource programs offered by Kids Help Phone who provides support for all young people in Canada. These programs give students space to learn about mental health, ask questions, clear up misconceptions, and help them understand when, where and how to seek support.
Based on the young people who reached out through the texting service:
- 85% found their conversation helpful
- 81% said they got the anticipated support
- 78% said that they felt less upset after their conversation
Accessible resources
When students have a strong understanding of mental health, they may be more likely to reach out for support. It is imperative, however, that they know where and whom they can turn to. Having easy access to inclusive resources can help promote continued learning while breaking barriers to reaching out for support. Here are some considerations to bear in mind:
- Creating multiple access points to resources (e.g., creating a web page with linked resources, optional student email lists for monthly well-being resources, etc.) may improve accessibility and allow school counsellors to increase outreach to students while growing their knowledge of when, where and how to seek support. Resources can be shared through physical materials (such as the wallet cards, posters or stickers one can order online), meetings or presentations, and virtual means like websites, emails and links.
- It is important to ensure these resources are inclusive, as this opens the doors for all students to get support regardless of gender, identity, race, religion, abilities, etc.
- One of the largest databases of such resources in Canada, Kids Help Phone’s website, is an example of where students can access Resources Around Me, a tool for young people and caring adults to search for services in and/or serving their community. As a counsellor, you can use such websites to guide students to these resources, supporting their mental health and well-being.
Building Confidence
Providing accurate information on mental health and well-being is only one step in encouraging students to reach out for support. It is important that students feel safe and comfortable using resources for support, otherwise the support available may not be accessed or could feel unhelpful.
Conversations on mental health can be incorporated into daily activities in the classroom with methods such as emotional check-ins, mental health breaks and open-door policies that allow students to always have a safe place to go during school hours. Sharing the information with students about where they may access numerous tip sheets and mental health activities can be utilized to build and facilitate these activities and safe spaces.
High School Considerations
When exploring strategies for increasing knowledge around mental health and healthy help-seeking behaviours, it is important that the additional challenges faced by high school students are acknowledged. High school students may experience higher discomfort asking questions about mental health and well-being around their peers due to social stigma, fear of feeling like a burden and feeling like their problems aren’t big enough, which can lead to lower confidence when engaging in healthy help-seeking behaviours.
To encourage mental health discussions and initiatives, methods that connect with the interests of the students and that allow for anonymous participation can be helpful. Some suggestions for school counsellors include:
- Creating anonymous question boxes that can allow students to be open and curious about mental health without the pressure of asking their questions publicly.
- Using resources that include celebrity or athlete conversations around mental health such as Kids Help Phone’s Feel Out Loud videos can also increase confidence in help-seeking for high school students by creating connections between their role models and the importance of mental health.
- Employing technology as a tool for learning and accessing support can also be a beneficial method, as many high school students prefer interacting through technology. School counsellors can also set up lessons, games and activities through virtual programs like Mentimeter, Kahoot and Google Forms that can allow students to engage anonymously through their personal devices.
- The implementation of a wellness club at school for students to advocate for mental health awareness and education may also be beneficial. Offering the opportunity to students to be ambassadors at their school, build their capacity as leaders and to create services for their peers.
- Additionally, Kids Help Phone’s website includes multiple virtual resources to explore their mental health, like the Peer-to-Peer Community, an online forum where youth (aged 12-26) can support and connect with one another about their experiences, offer inspiration and ask and answer each other’s questions.
Conclusion
It is not always easy to be a student. Consequently, students need support to help them understand their mental health, to know where to access resources and to feel more confident in reaching out. School counsellors play a large role in promoting these healthy help-seeking behaviours, and their incredible work with supporting the student body’s wellness is vital. School counsellors can achieve and adopt mental health strategies (e.g., through inclusive and accessible resources) with their students, working to expand on their services and resources by creating opportunities that encourage students to be more likely to get the support they need when they need it and in the way they need it most.
By: Hannah Dodsworth, Kids Help Phone Counsellor
