Primary school-based counselling:

Is it associated with reductions in psychological

distress?

Mick CooperProfessor of Counselling

How do we know if primary school-based counselling is

associated with reductions in psychological distress?

Can ask children/parents /teachers to rate child’s levels of psychological

distress, and see if it drops during counselling

Time 4 Me Evaluation• Primary outcome measure:

Child Outcome Rating Scale (CORS-child)

Child Self-Report Measure: CORS

Time 4 Me Evaluation• Primary outcome measure:

Child Outcome Rating Scale (CORS-child)

• Children (7-11 years old) asked to rate levels of psychological wellbeing at every counselling session

• Average scores at first and last session compared

• Data available from 288 children (100% response)

Child Self-Report Measure: CORS

040

27.5

Average = 26.2

Start of counselling

Clinical levels of distress

= 73.6%

End of counselling

Clinical levels of distress

= 9.4%

Start End

57.6% of children

End of counselling

Start of counselling

Child-CORS averages

Clinical cut-off point

Is it just the children who think they have improved?

Parents/carers, and teachers, also completed the CORS measures at the start and

end of counselling

End of counselling

Start of counselling

Parent/Carer-CORS averages

Clinical cut-off point

End of counsellin

g

Start of counselling

Teacher-CORS averages

Clinical cut-off point

Strengths and Difficulties

Questionnaire• Additional parent/carer- and

teacher-rated measure of psychological difficulties

• Used throughout CAMHS• Excellent levels of reliability and

validity

Parent/Carer SDQTo

tal D

ifficu

ltie

s

Normal

Borderline

Abnormal

Start

End

Teacher SDQTo

tal D

ifficu

ltie

s

Start

End

Normal

Abnormal

Borderline

Differences across clients

• Young people with a disability (e.g., Autistic Spectrum Disorder, behaviourally-based difficulty, communication impairment, learning disability) improved more than those without

Child-CORS scores from start to end of

counselling

Start End20

25

30

35

40

DisabilityNo disability

Time 4 Me Evaluation Summary

School-based counselling associated with significant improvements on all outcome measures, generally indicating large reductions in psychological distress from start to end of counselling

Context

• Significant improvement is consistent with evaluations of other primary school-based counselling services: e.g., Place2Be

Limitations

• No control group (i.e., a comparable group of children who do not receive counselling), so improvements might be due to non-counselling factors

• But studies suggest that ‘spontaneous remission’ from mental health problems in children is at a much lower level than found in this study

End of counselling

Start of counselling

Child-CORS averages

Clinical cut-off point

Control group change

Conclusion

• Primary school-based counselling, as delivered by Time 4 Me, associated with large improvements in mental health and emotional well-being in children

• Likely to support learning and educational achievement

Young service userEvaluation of school-based counselling in Wales

“It’s easier to educate happier people”

Thank you

Mick CooperProfessor of Counsellingmick.cooper@strath.ac.uk