A child psychologist has opened up about how she believes a relatively simple change in UK schools could better help children who are struggling with poor mental health.

There is a mental health crisis not-so-quietly bubbling away among young people. It’s thought one in five children aged eight to 16 years old has a ‘probable mental disorder’ – a figure that has been steadily rising over the years.

On top of this, waiting times for help and support can be lengthy. A report on children’s mental health services from 2022-23 found the average waiting time for mental health support was 35 days, but 40,000 children experienced a wait of over two years.

With kids spending most of their waking hours there, schools have an opportunity to help children in their time of need – and Dr Margot Sunderland, child psychologist and director of Trauma Informed Schools UK, said they are “doing their best under enormous pressure”.

But with limited funding and training, she said staff “are often left managing levels of distress they’ve never been trained for”.

“Most schools have just one or two mental health leads, and many teachers receive no formal training in trauma or emotional regulation,” she added.

What needs to change?

Dr Sunderland, who has over 30 years’ experience working with young people and training staff in more than 6,000 schools, believes there is a lot of focus on mental health awareness, but not so much on “understanding” what children are going through.

“For years, young people have been given resources asking questions like, ‘Why might drinking when you’re grieving be a bad idea?’. They already know that,” she said.

“What they need is help to understand what happens to their........

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