School counselors experiences from work with mental illness among high school students

Studiens syfte var att undersöka vilka former av psykisk ohälsa som skolkuratorer mötte samt hur de arbetade med detta. Vi har därför utfört en kvalitativ studie och intervjuat sex skolkuratorer som arbetar med högstadieelever. Resultatet visade att psykisk ohälsa var ett mångtydigt begrepp, men att de mest centrala formerna av psykisk ohälsa i skolan var stress, prestationsångest och självskadebeteende. Skolkuratorernas arbetsuppgifter upplevdes som diffusa, men de tre mest framträdande arbetsuppgifterna i samband med psykisk ohälsa var kartläggning, enskilda samtal samt att remittera elever vidare till andra aktörer. Skolkuratorerna fokuserade främst på akuta insatser vilket resulterade i att det förebyggande arbetet att motverka psykisk ohälsa blev eftersatt. Deras samverkan inom elevhälsan beskrevs vara betydelsefull för att upptäcka och hantera psykisk ohälsa.The aim of this study was to explore what kind of mental illness school counselors encounter and work with in school, we have therefore conducted a qualitative study and interviewed six school counselors who work with high school students. The results showed that mental illness was an ambiguous term, but the most significant forms of mental illness encountered were stress, performance anxiety and self-harm. School counselors work was perceived as vague, but the three most prominent tasks associated with mental illness were charting, individual counseling and to support students to other professionals. The school counselors focused primarily on acute interventions which resulted that preventive work to avoid mental illness being neglected. Their collaboration in student health care was described to be important for detecting and managing mental illness