Source: Radio New Zealand
Wellington East Girls College associate principal Anna Wilson. John Gerritsen/RNZ
Schools say a Rotary Club-funded scheme that pays for counselling within 24 hours is making a huge difference for their students.
The programme called Lifting the Lid runs in several parts of the country and started in Wellington in 2022.
Schools say it helps them cope with a rising tide of mental health problems among young people.
David Shackleton, chair of the Wellington Lifting the Lid committee, said the programme originated in Australia and was introduced to the city by the Port Nicholson Rotary Club.
Since then Rotary clubs in areas including Hutt Valley and Kapiti had adopted the programme for their local schools, he said.
Shackleton said the Wellington scheme allocated funding to 14 participating schools – 10 secondary schools and four intermediate schools – to use as they wished.
He said the schools decided what was best for each child and sent a form to Lifting the Lid requesting approval, which was granted within 24 hours.
Shackleton said the Wellington programme had supported more than 1700 sessions for about 160 students since it began.
He said demand was growing at an alarming rate.
“We meet three times a year with the principals and the school counsellors and during that time we get their feedback on how the programme is going and what kind of demand they are seeing in their schools – consistently we hear that demand is increasing almost term by term,” he said.
Shackleton said it appeared social media including cyber-bullying was a major driver of mental health problems among young people.
He said the club and donors raised $100,000 for the Wellington programme for this year’s work – enough to put some aside for next year.
Rongotai College deputy principal Geoff Hall said the school was one of the first to join the scheme.
“It was a no-brainer for us. The well-being of kids is really, really important and one of the issues is just getting the funds to support those kids,” he said.
Rongotai College deputy principal Geoff Hall. John Gerritsen/RNZ
Hall said prior to joining the scheme the school used in-house expertise, sometimes including teachers who did not have counselling backgrounds, or waiting for appointments with external providers because the school did not have the money to pay for private sessions.
“This has allowed us to access external providers quickly and efficiently without that added burden of ‘where are we going to find the cash’. We can go to the ministry and in most cases the ministry actually do provide you with the money, but there’s a process and a long process to actually be able to access that,” he said.
Hall said the scheme helped the school be proactive and arrange sessions that equipped groups of boys with skills to improve their mental health.
“We’re giving the boys the tools to deal with their own wellbeing,” he said.
“Life as a teenager is a lot harder now than what it was when I first started teaching in 1990. These kids need a lot more explicit teaching of the skills to be able to deal with their own wellbeing.”
Hall said schools involved in the scheme met regularly to share their experiences and it was clear demand for counselling was increasing.
Wellington East Girls College associate principal Anna Wilson said Lifting the Lid ensured help for students was not delayed by lengthy waiting lists.
“Last year, we were able to have some students have educational psychologist assessments, which give us a really good understanding of why they’re not able to engage in their lessons and what’s going on for them,” she said.
“The families themselves couldn’t afford that and through the public system they would take a long time to get a referral from their GP to see a paediatrician or psychologist.”
Wilson said demand for mental services was high.
“This funding pool could be grown for us five to 10 times and we could still use it,” she said.
“The wait lists are extreme outside of school. We’ve got a team of two-and-a-half counsellors here at our school and we still have a wait list for the kids that want to see them.”
Wilson said it was clear from meetings with participating schools that anxiety and problems arising from social media were common.
She said Lifting the Lid relieved pressure on the school’s finances.
“A full educational psychological report for us would be around $1700, the equine therapy course was a similar cost… so that’s really awesome to have that funding to use,” she said.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
