A Nova Scotia school counsellor says there are not enough counsellors to meet the demands of young students.
According to Andrew Gosney, a counsellor at Hammonds Plains Consolidated Elementary, the demand for mental health needs of students has grown in the past decade.
Meanwhile, the number of counsellors available hasn’t kept up, he said.
“There’s not enough, and I would argue most counsellors would feel spread too thin,” Gosney said.
“The demand is very high; It’s quite varied.
“You have a variety of mental health needs ranging from anxiety, depression, grief, gender and sexuality concerns, anything having to do with cultural relations.”
Gosney said much of his time as a school counsellor is spent building relationships with students.
“A lot of what presents relates to social-emotional learning and self-regulation in general,” he said.
“Sometimes there are kind of blow-up events and, we realize very quickly that that’s an outcome of a conflict that was not resolved when it should have been.”
His comments come just nine days after police arrested a 15-year-old student of Charles P. Allen High School after two staff members were stabbed and taken to hospital with serious injuries. The teen was also injured, and now faces several charges, including two counts of attempted murder.
Following the incident, students and teachers at the school called for more mental health supports at Nova Scotia schools.
Gosney said though he hasn’t seen specific data on the increase of violence in schools, he is hearing “more of it” from fellow staff.
“I can’t imagine what CPA is going through… I spent my days at my school just supporting my staff on ways to talk about the issues with students,” Gosney said.
“In my experience over the years, I’ve seen a great deal of violence… and it presents for a wide variety of reasons.”
Gosney said sometimes students present signs of mental illness and may need outside supports.
“(When) counsellors are able to be focusing on counselling at the sites that they’re at… Then we’re able to identify any potential concerns that may need to be referred out for more clinical assessment.”
But, many counsellors are already working over capacity, he said.
“There’s a ratio of counsellors to students, and it’s far too high. Currently, it’s one to 400, and really it should be one to 250,” Gosney said.
“Some are working out of closets when they don’t have offices. Some are meeting with kids in the hallway because there’s not a space to meet with.”
Gosney said there are some schools in which counsellors are split between teaching in classrooms and their role as counsellors, or where there’s a counsellor on-site just one day a week.
“There needs to be a full-time counsellor at every school. I think that, to me, is a no-brainer.”
Counsellors working with ‘unmanageable’ caseloads
Gosney said he currently triages students he works with and touches base with them on a weekly or biweekly basis.
“I always wish I could do more. I had to resign myself to the fact that I can only do what I can do, and we’re all doing the best we can.”
Gosney said while he’s not trying to be an alarmist, not meeting demand can lead to serious problems.
“That’s actually kind of personal for me… I’ve seen and experienced the worst outcomes in my career so far,” he said.
“I’ve supported many students through suicidality, and I lost students to that over the years.”
In a phone call, Nova Scotia’s acting executive director of students and equity Annie Baert said counsellors are members of a multidisciplinary team to support mental health in schools, including school psychologists and mental health clinicians.
Baert said the government’s approach is based on reports and research “in terms of how they most effectively support students mental health and wellbeing in school.”
“One of the most recent ones was Students First, which looked at how we provide inclusive education in public schools across Nova Scotia. And our recommendation for school counsellors, it was one to 400 — and we are meeting that ratio,” Baert said.
The report was released in 2018 and is available online.
“Since that report was released, we’ve added more than a thousand supports in the system, both initiatives and staff. Out of that, there were 17 school counsellor positions and close to 20 new school psychologist positions, as well as schoos mental health clinicians and social workers,” Baert said.
“So in terms of a ratio, we look more broadly around the array of support that we have. Counsellors are very valuable and are fundamental support for student well-being and mental health, in addition to those we look to other specialists and professionals that we have.”
School counsellors in the province are represented by the Nova Scotia Teachers Union.
Union president Ryan Lutes echoed Gosney’s concerns that demand for school counsellors has gone up.
“They’re absolutely essential and necessary,” he said.
Lutes said he has seen some positive moves from the education department, but the bottom line is full-time counsellors are needed at every school.
“So that when students need support, they know that they’re going to get it from a qualified school counsellor,” Lutes said.
“Kids in our schools have mental health concerns every day, we can’t schedule those.”
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