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Primary school-based counselling: Is it associated with reductions in psychological distress?

Primary school-based counselling: Is it associated with reductions in psychological distress?. Mick Cooper Professor of Counselling. How do we know if primary school-based counselling is associated with reductions in psychological distress?.

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Primary school-based counselling: Is it associated with reductions in psychological distress?

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  1. Primary school-based counselling: Is it associated with reductions in psychological distress? Mick Cooper Professor of Counselling

  2. How do we know if primary school-based counselling is associated with reductions in psychological distress? Can ask children/parents /teachers to rate child’s levels of psychological distress, and see if it drops during counselling

  3. Time 4 Me Evaluation • Primary outcome measure: Child Outcome Rating Scale (CORS-child)

  4. Child Self-Report Measure: CORS

  5. Time 4 Me Evaluation • Primary outcome measure: Child Outcome Rating Scale (CORS-child) • Children (7-11 years old) asked to rate levels of psychological wellbeing at every counselling session • Average scores at first and last session compared • Data available from 288 children (100% response)

  6. Child Self-Report Measure: CORS Average = 26.2 0 40 27.5

  7. Start of counselling Clinical levels of distress = 73.6%

  8. End of counselling Clinical levels of distress = 9.4%

  9. 57.6% of children

  10. Child-CORS averages Start of counselling End of counselling Clinical cut-off point

  11. Is it just the children who think they have improved? Parents/carers, and teachers, also completed the CORS measures at the start and end of counselling

  12. Parent/Carer-CORS averages Start of counselling End of counselling Clinical cut-off point

  13. Teacher-CORS averages Start of counselling End of counselling Clinical cut-off point

  14. Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire • Additional parent/carer- and teacher-rated measure of psychological difficulties • Used throughout CAMHS • Excellent levels of reliability and validity

  15. Parent/Carer SDQ Abnormal Total Difficulties Start Borderline End Normal

  16. Teacher SDQ Abnormal Total Difficulties Start Borderline End Normal

  17. Differences across clients • Young people with a disability (e.g., Autistic Spectrum Disorder, behaviourally-based difficulty, communication impairment, learning disability) improved more than those without

  18. Child-CORS scores from start to end of counselling

  19. Time 4 Me Evaluation Summary School-based counselling associated with significant improvements on all outcome measures, generally indicating large reductions in psychological distress from start to end of counselling

  20. Context • Significant improvement is consistent with evaluations of other primary school-based counselling services: e.g., Place2Be

  21. Limitations • No control group (i.e., a comparable group of children who do not receive counselling), so improvements might be due to non-counselling factors • But studies suggest that ‘spontaneous remission’ from mental health problems in children is at a much lower level than found in this study

  22. Child-CORS averages Start of counselling End of counselling Control group change Clinical cut-off point

  23. Conclusion • Primary school-based counselling, as delivered by Time 4 Me, associated with large improvements in mental health and emotional well-being in children • Likely to support learning and educational achievement

  24. “It’s easier to educate happier people” Young service user Evaluation of school-based counselling in Wales

  25. Thank you Mick Cooper Professor of Counselling mick.cooper@strath.ac.uk

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