Emphasing the Need for School Based Mental Health Programme with Few Case Studies

Abstract

School plays an important part in the lives of children and adolescents and can potentially play a key role in helping to address the mental health needs of their students. In present scenario the school based mental health programme has been recognized and initiated in many schools though mainly by the management or non-governmental organizations not through the government. Objectives: a) to identify commonest factors associated with scholastic problems, b) to develop Case studies, c) to utilize the intervention provide by the psychiatric Social worker and referral service in managing the academic and mental health problems in the school context. Methods: A psychiatric Social worker delivered the intervention using mainly the principles of case work and applied behavioural analysis with 23 case studies. Results: Faulty learning Strategies , peer related adjustment problems, uncongenial family environment , core psychiatric disorders, borderline intelligence or pervasive developmental problems and poor teaching strategies or class room environment  were the major contributors of academic problems. Conclusion: Most of the problems leading not only the scholastic and behavioural problems, but also to strengthen their coping skills through interventions. Case vignettes will help teachers and parents to know more about their wards and also to deal with the children’s problems effectively.

Keywords: School mental health, interventions and referral service