Pressure on school counsellors

Text bullying and the rise of social media are creating spiralling demand for counselling in schools, a Masterton high school principal warns.

The New Zealand Association of Counsellors says a sharp rise in the number of secondary school students seeking school counselling services means some students with potentially serious problems are not getting appointments when needed.

Association board member and Christchurch school counsellor Sarah Maindonald said most counsellors were now seeing about 50 students a week, nearly double the 28 recommended by community agencies.

Students' problems ranged from bullying and academic issues to self-harm and date rape.

Masterton's Rathkeale College principal Willy Kersten said there was "more and more" need for students to speak to someone they trusted.

This wasn't necessarily with the school's part-time counsellor, but with anyone at the school or at home who they trusted.

"There are increasingly complicated societal situations, often involving families and relationships."

He had "no doubt" that text bullying and the growth of social media were affecting students.

"It's impacting how they see themselves, how they are seen by others ... and that being communicated inappropriately."

Rathkeale ran several programmes aimed at developing confidence in young people, which helped give students the advice and guidance they needed, Mr Kersten said.

NZAC's Ms Maindonald said guidance counsellors were feeling increasingly stressed and there were fears some would burn out.

"Counsellors are good 'go to' people with whom students can discuss a range of issues, not just focussed on medical or mental health matters, without the fear of being stigmatised or labelled."

The workload in every town fluctuated depending on the crisis it was dealing with, she said.

"There have been some rural communities where there has been a cluster of suicides and that certainly put extra pressure on counsellors."

Christchurch had experienced the most significant spike following the earthquakes and in some cases the Red Cross was stepping in to fund counselling services in schools.

The Education Review Office is reviewing guidance provision this year, and the NZAC hoped this would result in a better ratio of guidance counsellors to students.

Secondary Principals' Association president Tom Parsons said more students were now seeking assistance for problems they'd always had, but hadn't been confident about getting addressed.

Schools were also increasingly more responsible for things that used to lie with parents and churches, he said.

It is not compulsory for schools to employ counsellors, but funding is available and most schools do.

The job was not always a full-time designated role and schools would often assign a teacher to provide counselling, an Education Ministry spokeswoman said. APNZ

Counsellors in schools

Community agencies recommend that counsellors see an average of 28 clients a week, but counsellors in schools are now seeing about 50 per week.

The recommended ratio is about one counsellor to 400 students.

However, there were 122 guidance counsellors nationwide for 273,712 secondary school students in April 2012 - an average ratio of one counsellor for every 2245 pupils.

Often teachers provide counselling services, which is not recorded.

Source: Ministry of Education, NZAC