AR
UR
A Dubai school conducted a UAE-wide survey which found that good mental health support is a crucial factor for parents in deciding the school for their children's education.
According to head teachers in the UAE, ensuring students receive external psychological support is often challenging because it is not covered by health insurance in most cases.
Significantly, a number of schools in the UAE have staff trained in mental health first aid to handle students experiencing symptoms such as panic attacks.
Dubai's Royal Grammar School Guild ford polled 250 parents of children aged between 3 and 11 across the UAE in its survey. According to the findings, more than seven in 10 who were surveyed expressed the need for psychological support for their children in schools. Furthermore, half of the parents wanted mental health to be on the curriculum as standard.
According to the poll, more than seven in 10 parents said that the mental health of their child had deteriorated due to the pandemic. A similar number of parents said home-schooling negatively impacted their own mental health.
A global study underlined that in 2021, approximately 40 percent of young people aged 18 to 24 in the Middle East felt that their mental health deteriorated as a result of the pandemic, repeated lockdowns, remote learning and long spells of enforced isolation.
Clare Turnbull, principal at the Royal Grammar School Guildford Dubai, said that it is no surprise that parents are now looking for mental health support in schools for their children after the pandemic disrupted their learning and social development.
“We have many trained members of staff within the school, whether it be teachers who have experience and knowledge on wellbeing, and on early mental health issues or teachers who are also additionally trained counsellors, so we can offer frontline support within school," she added.
The school authorities also consulted parents to ensure the provision of additional specialist support for children in need at the parent's own cost.
Mental health in school’s curriculum
The school has prioritised the need for encouraging an honest conversation around mental health among pupils. Students are also taught various strategies to help them in understanding and process their feelings.
According to teachers, the pandemic has put a spotlight on children’s mental health after pupils were forced to study online at home for extended periods of time.
Speaking in this regard, David Cook, headmaster at Repton Dubai in Nad Al Sheba, underlined that there has been a massive shift in the mindset of parents in terms of the mental health needs of children.
He added that many young people who left their homes to university were locked in their bedrooms during the pandemic. It has enhanced the need for schools and colleges to assess the efforts taken by the administration in providing necessary tools to pupils to help themselves.
Today, many schools have counsellors and trained child psychologists on staff. He added all three Repton schools have staff trained in mental health.
“Good schools around the world are employing specialists in teenage mental health. We also have very extensive relationships now with specialists at centres of wellbeing, and we would regularly have a specialist come in and talk to a whole year group," Mr Cook added.
Staff trained in mental health first aid or a pastoral leader or even a class teacher usually talks to pupils about different issues they are facing including anxiety, depression and body image.
Such sessions help in minimising the concerns in at least 90 percent of cases. In the remaining 10 percent of cases, which are very serious, the schools seek help from wellbeing centres or talk to parents or even refer the pupils to specialists.
Shiny Davison, director of learning at Gulf Model School in Dubai, noted that mental health challenges were more severe for schools with the lowest fees as parents of many pupils studying there were not able to afford help.
When pupils needed specialist help, it could result in a big financial burden on families, she noted.
The Gulf Model School has a five-member counselling team and members of staff can administer mental health first aid. Students are welcome to anonymous messages to the counsellors or seek individual help.
“The most important part is to offer wellbeing support. We have volunteers and parents who help the children out. Volunteers may not be specialists but they can help the child out in the class. If they have a speech or a learning disability, volunteers can help" Ms Davison added.
Radwa Allabban, Egyptian-British mother of three, expressed the need for emotional support and reassurance among teenagers as they go through adolescence. Physical and mental changes among teenagers can be a daunting experience if there isn't strong parental guidance as well as pastoral care in school, Ms Allabban added.
She noted that technological advancement and social media influence are putting more pressure on teens to be 'successful', which isn’t realistic in most cases. For her, home schooling was a "necessary evil" during the pandemic which delivered several complications.
“My son asks me if the pandemic will ever be over. Isolation wasn’t good for his mental health,” she noted.
SOURCE: The National News