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? Can ask children/parents /teachers to rate child’s levels of psychological distress, and see if it drops during counselling

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

Child Self-Report Measure: CORS

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)

Child Self-Report Measure: CORS Average = 26.2

Start of counselling Clinical levels of distress = 73.6%

End of counselling Clinical levels of distress = 9.4%

StartEnd 57.6% of children

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

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

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

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

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

Parent/Carer SDQ Total Difficulties Normal Borderline Abnormal Start End

Teacher SDQ Total Difficulties Start End Normal Abnormal Borderline

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

Child-CORS scores from start to end of counselling

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thank you Mick Cooper Professor of Counselling