Counselling Aotearoa February 2020

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School Guidance Counselling in Crisis: Supporting our Colleagues

School guidance counsellors’ roles have “become more complex and even more precarious” in the past 14 years, a recent discussion paper stated, with a crisis on the horizon that needs addressing urgently.

The first one to be published since a similar report in 2006, it was developed by the New Zealand Post-Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Guidance Counsellor Taskforce.

Presented at last year’s PPTA Te Wehengarua Annual Conference, it made several recommendations.

However, this was not before it clearly highlighted that change in the work environment has been lacking since the last report thanks to little support and resourcing, and previous recommendations “being largely ignored”.

“Since 2006, the position of guidance counsellors has become more complex and even more precarious with the profession fighting to ensure safe practice around their work with students in an increasingly difficult employment landscape.”

The paper recommended, among other things, that the PPTA acknowledges the critical role that school guidance counsellors have in promoting student wellbeing in secondary schools, actively supports the Te Pakiaka Tangata guidelines and that branches remind boards of trustees that these are working documents in need of embracing.

Additionally, the PPTA should encourage the Education Workforce Strategy Group to enter into dialogue with school counsellors as stakeholders in the changing shape of education.

Of particular interest was the Guidance Counsellor Taskforce’s urgent need of redressing the difficulty in attracting and retaining experienced practitioners, as growing workloads and complex casework act as large obstacles to entering the workforce.

“This problem is exacerbated in rural areas by limited resources and restricted access to [Resource Teacher: Learning Behaviour], and allied services such as mental health services and other community agencies.

“School guidance counsellors are spending more time reacting to critical incidents rather than developing proactive and preventative programmes to meet student needs and continuing to work students they were already seeing.”

The paper also highlighted other areas of concern, including the lack of school guidance representation on the Education Workforce Strategy Group which could result in a misunderstanding of the complexity of their work.

School guidance counsellors’ “invisibility” in in the recent Tomorrow’s Schools and Mental Health reviews were of “immense concern”.

Additionally, pathways for qualified counsellors entering the teaching profession are often too complex and unmanageable.

Compounding a counsellors’ unsafe work environment is the caseload which, when not managed well, may lead to dangerous outcomes for both the students and the counsellor.

“In an adequately-resourced world, all students should be screened and given the appropriate support to address any barriers to learning and wellbeing.”

“But stress and burnout are becoming a greater reality for some of school guidance counsellors. It is time to address the condition under which they operate, before this becomes an even bigger crisis.”

Cross-Party Group to Stimulate Discussion on Mental Health

A group is aiming to achieve cross-party dialogue to develop a collective vision and the direction of mental health and addictions wellbeing in New Zealand.

The Cross Party Mental Health and Addiction Wellbeing Group recently released its terms of reference, stating their purpose, principles and proposed activity.

Providing Members of Parliament with information, evidence and knowledge exchange, it hopes to support longer term thinking around mental health and addiction, including its wider impacts in New Zealand.

The group will have a steering group made up of a representative from each political party, who will prepare a work plan and host meetings open to all Members of Parliament.

These will be closed to media and other external organisations unless specifically invited.

The cross party mental health and addiction wellbeing group will work collaboratively taking responsibility to ensure their own accountability.

Platform – a charitable trust that supports a network of organisations that provide support to thousands of people whose lives are directly impacted by mental health and addictions – will be taking on the secretariat role for the group.

In doing so, Platform will use its networks and connections to serve the mental health and addiction working group.

Hosting regular meetings to give Members of Parliament insight into the diverse issues within the mental health and addictions landscape, the group may prepare reports and discussion papers to stimulate discussion, knowledge and wider understanding.

This will include emerging issues, examples of good practice and evidence, including the views of opinion leaders, that will support better understanding and possible responses within New Zealand.

The terms of references states that following the Report of the Government Inquiry into Mental Health and Addiction, the next period of change for the mental health and addiction support system will be complex, requiring long-term and consistent attention.

“It is now widely recognised that we need to think beyond a health response, to mental health and addictions support to more of social model.

“This will require changes for all and at every level of the system. One of the vehicles to achieve change was a recommendation that suggested the establishment a cross party working group within Parliament, as a tangible demonstration of collective and enduring political commitment to improved mental health and wellbeing in New Zealand.”

Counsellors Working with Lawyers

It’s not hard to imagine that those seeking legal advice from family court lawyers are doing so after a traumatic event, such as a family member’s death or a complicated breakdown in a relationship.

And often, the subsequent emotional responses aren’t appropriately dealt with before legal expertise are sought.

Hence, the recommendations of lawyers throughout the country – who we’ve agreed not to name – that their clients should always seek some method of wellbeing assistance.

The family court, and its original reason for being there, by its very nature is very stressful, lawyers say, and dealing with the psychological issues that come from that event are very important.

One such Auckland-based lawyer, who has specialised in family law since 2009, says her role is to provide legal advice, “not therapeutic assistance to the client”.

“There is a positive obligation on lawyers to promote conciliation across most of the pieces of legislation that we work with; we’re not meant to be telling clients to go to court to resolve their problems.

“The court expects that the parties will resolve their problems, and that the court is the last resort.”

And thanks to the normalising of mental health, she says more clients are open to seeking wellbeing assistance.

She admits that she would rather refer clients to psychologists rather than counsellors because of the court’s greater readiness to recognise them.

“Then I will normally arrange for there to be something of a two-way street; the psychologist can talk to me perhaps about the legal process, and I to them without breaching privacy and confidentiality.

“It’s helpful sometimes to find out what is happening in the session. So, that it is more efficient with the way it is dealt.”

Nevertheless, as with most things, the biggest barrier preventing people seeking this kind of assistance is its cost.

While the same may be true for lawyers, the difference is the ability to provide legal aid should they reach the right criteria, or some sort of other financial agreement.

That isn’t the case for psychologists or counsellors, she says.

“That is a real barrier for a lot of people. And while there are work schemes – which I suggest that my clients take advantage of like Employment Assistance Scheme (EAP) – often the counsellors who work in the scheme do not have knowledge of the family court processes.

“If we had a big pool of money for clients to access for therapeutic services, that would be ideal. The family court model, prior to the reforms in 2014, did provide some counselling. Hopefully that it is reinstated as part of the review of the reforms that is currently underway.”

At the other end of the country, a lawyer who has specialised in family court law for 11 years agrees that counselling can help a client reflect on their circumstances in the best interests of their children and themselves.

She also wishes she could advise her clients to seek mental health assistance. “But we just don’t have the services.”

“We’re just so desperately lacking in resources in that space. And it’s also problematic that people who do go have a mentality that they’re likely to think they’re fine after one session.”

The 2014 Family Court reforms brought in by the previous National government put the onus on parents – rather than the court – to resolve their differences, but five years on there’s little evidence more families have been able to resolve their problems out of court, or that children are better off.

When asked what she would prefer, she says that bringing back access to counselling sooner would greatly reduce the emotional turmoil clients leave untreated.

Because, similarly to her counterpart in Auckland, she believes costs are an inhibiting factor. Additionally, there is the problem of engagement.

“A big part of it is getting the client to engage in counselling in a meaningful way. If people aren’t turning up, what are you supposed to do?”

Another issue she raises is the communication around funding for community services that may be of assistance. While she is aware of charitable trusts that offer a multitude of services, she is unsure of the funding pathways.

“If someone doesn’t have access to EAP, then there are a lot of people out there that can’t afford the resource privately.”

Compounding all of this is the increasingly complex mental health issues legal aid clients are presenting with, she says.

“All I know is we’re seeing more people with more complicated issues, compared to when I first started practicing law.”

One partner at firm based within the Bay of Plenty region admits that raising the issue of seeing a counsellor can be “tricky”.

“Most clients, even private clients, think that they are trying to get them back together with their partner when we suggest going to see a counsellor.”

Despite that, she believes 95 per cent of her clients would benefit greatly from counselling, whether that be a one-off service or ongoing, and additionally would make her job easier.

“It would cut the emotional side of the job out – we’re lawyers, not counsellors. But often, the first call or first meeting, between myself and a client, they use it as a chance to emotionally dump all their problems.

“This is costly for the client, because we need to listen to a lot of information to try and figure out what the best plan for the client is moving forward on a legal front.”

Again, costs, funding pathways and better communication between lawyers and counselling services continue to present issues, she says.

“We need some kind of relationship where perhaps we could refer to one place and tell our clients that they’d be best suited to this service, because we don’t actually know what’s out there and available in the area.”

“So, there needs to be a closer connection between the community services and local law firms.”