Counsellors ‘battling teens’ growing emotional crises’

As students present with increasing cases of depression, anxiety and other emotional and behavioural challenges, guidance counsellors on Friday called for more full-time support staff to help manage the growing demand for student care.

While counsellors have been managing, the workload has been steadily increasing, the head of the Barbados Association of Guidance Counsellors, Shernell Clarke, told Barbados TODAY.

She said: “In terms of the various responsibilities that we have… it is just us alone in the school as the lone guidance counsellor, and sometimes it could be a bit difficult managing the student issues, behaviour issues, but also all the other things that we have to do.”

“We do the career counselling, we do the personal guidance, we also teach Health and Family Life Education, so all of that, but it’s not to say that we’re complaining or anything, but we do know that the workload is increasing, and so yes, there is a need for maybe another guidance counsellor.”

While some schools have access to counsellors, these services are often shared across multiple institutions and are not always available full-time, Clarke said.

“I know that they have school counsellors assigned to certain schools and they are shared between schools, which means that they’re not always there, so it may be more beneficial to the schools to have two persons that are there all the time, instead of just one and then the other sometimes.”

While noting that she has not necessarily seen an increase in violent or negative behaviour among students, Clarke said counsellors are seeing more children needing emotional support than in previous years.

“Often what you see manifest in their behaviour is not the real problem, so we would definitely try to get to the root of the problem to see where this behaviour might be coming from, rather than maybe trying to address the behaviour but addressing the root of the problem so that the behaviour can then be changed.”

Many of the issues stem from peer pressure, difficult home environments and socioeconomic struggles, the guidance counsellor said.

“It’s a lot of peer pressure, wanting to fit in, wanting to be part of the crew. Sometimes it is the home environment where they might be even getting pressure from their socioeconomic situation, and they may want to do things that will put them maybe in a better light, for want of a better term.”

“But sometimes it is rooted in maybe dissatisfaction with their station in life, and they may want to be somebody different and don’t know how to express it.”

According to Clarke, those pressures can sometimes push students toward negative influences.

“They may choose the wrong company, they may choose the wrong avenues by which to accomplish success.”

While some students are now better able to identify and express how they are feeling, there are cases that require outside intervention:

“Sometimes they’ll tell you how they’re feeling, and we are able to help them sometimes to identify what it is that they might be feeling, but there will come a point, obviously, where if it is beyond our scope, we will have to refer them out.”

“Referral is a big part of what we do because we don’t keep the issues to ourselves if it is beyond us.”

Clarke noted that families referred for further psychological assistance sometimes choose private medical care instead of public services.

Asked how guidance counsellors cope with the emotional demands of the job themselves, Clarke said the association organises self-care and support sessions for members.

“From time to time, we will either bring in some professionals in terms of persons who deal with that kind of thing, helping us to regulate our own emotions.”

“The association on a whole is a space where persons can share, not details about cases, but generally how they might be feeling and get that support. That’s what the association is generally there for.”

Counsellors are also called upon to assist schools during traumatic incidents:

“Maybe they may have a death at the school or something, the counsellors will be called out to give support to their colleagues in the school, to provide counselling for students and staff at that time.”

“So counsellors have the avenue where we can reach out, and we can have therapeutic sessions and stuff for ourselves as well.” 

(LG)