After school psychologists help with the family doctor

School psychologists often get help from the family doctor

06/10/2014

According to a recent study, adolescents with mental disorders often receive help from GPs or pediatricians following their visit to school psychologists and are primarily cared for in general medicine. According to the evaluation, those affected rarely turn directly to specialists.

Guidepost in the health system
Almost every second German citizen becomes mentally ill at least once in a lifetime. Also, a significant proportion of all children and adolescents suffer from a mental disorder at some point during their school years. For them, school psychologists could then be an important first stop. When a treatment, such as a psychotherapeutic one, becomes necessary for the students, it is usually not done directly by the school psychologists themselves. But ideally they should point the way through the health care system, so that those affected can find therapeutic help with specialists. However, that is often not the case, as a recent study shows.

Teenagers with mental disorders seek help from the family doctor
After consultation with school psychologists, children and adolescents with a mental disorder were more likely to seek help in the classical body health sector, especially from the family doctor or pediatrician. After visiting the school psychologist, those concerned would not turn directly to therapists and doctors specializing in mental disorders. To this result came a research group around PD Dr. Marion Tegethoff from the Faculty of Psychology of the University of Basel as part of a project funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. For the study, the researchers analyzed the data from a representative US sample consisting of 6,483 students between the ages of 13 and 18 years. The results were in the trade magazine „PLOS ONE“ released.

Those affected take advantage of offers such as self-help groups or telephone hotlines
Researchers also found that sufferers also frequently took advantage of other health-related services, such as telephone hotlines, support groups and family support. On the other hand, visiting a school psychologist had no influence on whether or not the patients subsequently sought help from doctors and psychotherapists specializing in mental disorders. And even though these specialists are specialists in the treatment of children and adolescents with mental disorders.

Findings were gained in the US
The researchers interpret this result as an indication that US school psychologists are already making a valuable contribution to improving the care of those affected. Mrs. Tegethoff said: „It remains to be seen, however, whether cooperation between school psychologists and psychotherapists, as well as physicians specializing in mental disorders, should be further strengthened in order to optimize the assistance.“ Further analysis would have to show to what extent the knowledge gained in the USA can be transferred to other countries. So far, there is a lack of studies in many countries that could provide answers.

School psychologists in Germany
In Germany, school psychology is not a compulsory task in all countries. The nationwide supply was repeatedly demanded, as for example after the massacre of Erfurt in 2002, but in reality, there are still completely underserved areas. And while in other countries school psychologists naturally belong to solid competence teams of a school and thus know the stories of many students, but also the problems of the teachers very well, it is the rule in this country that they sit as psychologists with a university degree in central counseling centers and thus far away of everyday school life. (Ad)