Well? Issue 10: Spring/Summer 2007

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34 <strong>Well</strong>? Profile Optimistic Futures Paula Huddart describes the opportunity of leading a three-year research project into the effectiveness of mental health link workers in schools as “an absolute privilege”. Following 30 years’ experience in social work, both in field and planning capacities, the opportunity to read, think, study and ultimately report her findings has clearly been a gratifying and fascinating experience. Paula is a service development officer (children and families) for West Lothian Council and has recently published Insiders on the outside: primary mental health work in schools, her report on the impact of mental health link workers in mainstream West Lothian schools since 2002. The need to improve access for children to mental health services has been recognised in Scotland for some time, but it was the West Lothian Children’s Services Plan, submitted in 2002, that was the catalyst for action in her local area. ‘There are still people who believe that children don’t ever have mental health problems’ “The plan showed real gaps in lack of access to public services for some children across the country. In particular, children in West Lothian were waiting up to 14 months to be seen by a child psychiatrist or a clinical psychologist,” says Paula, who has now reverted to her post with West Lothian Council. The report prompted the National Programme to fund a qualitative study of the four mental health link workers who were by then appointed and placed in the integration offices of four West Lothian schools to provide a service to all 77 local schools. Paula recalls that, in 2002, bringing mental health professionals into schools was considered to be a very new concept. “Technically, we were putting health posts into education – something which hadn’t been done before. Like any new job, I was very apprehensive about the research post at first, and thought, ‘golly, what do I know about mental health?’.
“But it soon became clear that, for instance, the concepts of ‘attachment’ and ‘resilience’ were all very familiar and exactly what I had been dealing with for 30 years as a front line social worker. It’s just that, back then, we didn’t label these issues as ‘mental health problems’. There’s no question that my social work experience was invaluable in helping me understand mental health problems in children and put everything into context.” Paula has been based in West Lothian since 1974 when she began her career as a trainee social worker involved in the practice developments of the day – the start of the child in care review system and managing family placements for adopted children. Following a career break to have two children of her own, she resumed her social work career, ultimately becoming involved in national developments in child care and in conferences. She now combines her current post with tutoring first year social work law at Edinburgh University and, during the research, was working towards a Master of Philosophy. Paula chooses to work with children and young people as she believes it’s an area where social workers can make a real difference. ‘There’s something very optimistic about working with children’ “I’m not saying we can solve every young person’s problem, but it’s a sector which I find very dynamic. As a front line social worker it was sometimes quite hard constantly dealing with problems and rarely getting any feedback when things worked out. Sometimes, I might have read something in the paper about someone I knew completing suicide, or having to come back into the system. That can be very difficult. Now I’m involved in planning, I get satisfaction knowing we can change resources at authority level and make a positive impact. ”Paula is frustrated, however, that children and young people’s mental health services are still given relatively low priority on the health agenda. “It’s getting better, but not quickly enough,” she says. “There are still people who believe that children don’t ever have mental health problems. They refuse to accept that neglect and child abuse take place. Yes, it’s ugly, but it happens and I’ve seen it. To refuse to accept this fact negates these children’s experiences. “We promote the fact that to be mentally healthy you should have someone you love to care for you. But if children have bad experiences early in life, they’re too young to even articulate them. These negative experiences can then define their whole perception of the world. It becomes an unsafe, altered place – not the world that we experience. I find it disturbing if people won’t accept how fundamentally important this is.” Children’s mental health should be given higher priority, she says, and if their problems are tackled more effectively, society wouldn’t have to bear the cost of the possible negative <strong>Well</strong>? Profile 35 outcomes in later life – typically young women going to psychiatric hospital and young men ending up in jail. She believes an important part of the process is about listening to children and young people, hearing what they have to say and treating them as individuals. “I don’t agree with the current negative perceptions of childhood. And some sectors of society are far too ready to criminalise young people. For example, we’re not serving our young people well if we focus on the way they’re portrayed in some of the press. “When West Lothian hosted the Scottish Youth Parliament here to debate mental health, the young people were clearly worried about the perception the public had about ‘hoodies’. They – wonderfully – presented our chief executive and Lord Provost with hooded tops – good on them! It’s not about what young people wear, or whether or not they ‘congregate’ – neither of these things mean they’re planning to get into trouble. “It’s easy to classify children and young people’s behaviour – that tells us about the behaviour, but it doesn’t tell us where that behaviour came from. Every child is different and there are many types of background that can lead to mental health problems. That should be the next stage of research – because there’s not one single solution.” See page 36 for a summary of Paula’s research, Insiders on the Outside: Mental Health Link Workers in Schools.
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Page 3 and 4: welcome to well? By popular demand
Page 5 and 6: Here are some comments from members
Page 7 and 8: Entitled Inspire, Include, Improve,
Page 9 and 10: programme tackled some contemporary
Page 11 and 12: A person who is resilient is likely
Page 13 and 14: Promoting Resilience in Schools A p
Page 15 and 16: MAKING THE RIGHT CHOICES Choices Fo
Page 17 and 18: ASBOs or PoSBOs…? Instead of rece
Page 19 and 20: “Well-being” seems to be the co
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Page 23 and 24: It’s not easy being a Parent The
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Well? Issue 10: Spring/Summer 2007

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