Attitudes Towards Teachers Supporting Student Mental Health: Defining the Teachers’ Role
Tracks
Tamborine Gallery - In-Person Only
| Tuesday, March 25, 2025 |
| 11:30 AM - 11:50 AM |
Overview
Dr Brian Moore, University of Wollongong
Presenter
Dr Brian Moore
Senior Lecturer
University of Wollongong
Attitudes Towards Teachers Supporting Student Mental Health: Defining the Teachers’ Role
Abstract
Mental health (MH) is a major societal issue with an estimated annual global cost of $2.5 trillion (USD) (World Health Organisation, 2016). As many MH problems onset during youth, early intervention is critical for addressing the longer-term impacts of poor MH. However, according to the Australian Medical Association (2018), MH and psychiatric care are “grossly” underfunded in Australia. One consequence of this is that school teachers are increasingly expected to perform frontline MH provider roles (Australian Government Productivity Commission [AGPC], 2020), despite little training or resources (Andrews et al., 2014).
Given schools provide significant access (Kang-Yi, 2018) to the one in seven Australian youth experiencing mental health disorders (Lawrence et al., 2015), schools are arguably well positioned as a setting to conduct mental health work. However, many pre-service teacher education programs do not explicitly address mental health training (Ohrt et al., 2020), which may not occur at all (Armstrong et al., 2019). This may explain why many teachers report low confidence to carry out roles in mental health care (Moon et al., 2017). Further, it is important to note that the role of teachers in promoting wellbeing and preventing mental ill-health has never been clearly articulated by Australian governments (AGPC, 2020).
This presentation reports results from a mixed method cross-sectional survey examining community expectations of teacher roles in supporting rural students’ mental health. Quantitative results indicate the expectation that teachers provide MH support is not consistently held across the community. In contrast, participants strongly agreed that teachers do not receive adequate training to provide MH support for school students. The presentation will also examine qualitative results and discuss a practical working definition of this potential teacher role.
Given schools provide significant access (Kang-Yi, 2018) to the one in seven Australian youth experiencing mental health disorders (Lawrence et al., 2015), schools are arguably well positioned as a setting to conduct mental health work. However, many pre-service teacher education programs do not explicitly address mental health training (Ohrt et al., 2020), which may not occur at all (Armstrong et al., 2019). This may explain why many teachers report low confidence to carry out roles in mental health care (Moon et al., 2017). Further, it is important to note that the role of teachers in promoting wellbeing and preventing mental ill-health has never been clearly articulated by Australian governments (AGPC, 2020).
This presentation reports results from a mixed method cross-sectional survey examining community expectations of teacher roles in supporting rural students’ mental health. Quantitative results indicate the expectation that teachers provide MH support is not consistently held across the community. In contrast, participants strongly agreed that teachers do not receive adequate training to provide MH support for school students. The presentation will also examine qualitative results and discuss a practical working definition of this potential teacher role.
Biography
Dr Brian Moore is a senior lecturer and researcher at the University of Wollongong whose research promotes mental health and wellbeing. With a professional background as a psychologist and educator, Brian has significant experience working with children, adolescents, and their families. Brian is currently leading an international study examining community expectations of teachers supporting student mental health and his work examining martial arts and adolescent mental health has been translated in a collaboration with researchers in India. Brian is committed to promoting youth mental health and wellbeing through accessible, novel, and utilitarian psychosocial interventions.
