I’ve had lots of messages about my Guardian article, in which I argued we should stop universal mental health lessons in schools. The messages have fallen into three categories, and I’m reflecting on this here because I think it exposes something interesting in the field (and research in general) 🧵 - ThreadSky

lucyfoulkes.bsky.social • 26 days ago

I’ve had lots of messages about my Guardian article, in which I argued we should stop universal mental health lessons in schools. The messages have fallen into three categories, and I’m reflecting on this here because I think it exposes something interesting in the field (and research in general)
🧵

Comments

naomiekas.bsky.social•25 days ago

I’ve been following your writing on this and definitely in camp 2. I often talk about these programs in my undergrad courses and this means I need to update my teaching!

lucyfoulkes.bsky.social•23 days ago

thank you!

puellaaurelia.bsky.social•25 days ago

Hi! I’m a teacher (in Canada) and just read your article. I wonder if you considered what effect is had by who presents the MH lessons. As teachers, we’re supposed to be experts in teaching *a lot* of different subjects. I wonder if teacher unfamiliarity with teaching MH has an effect here?

puellaaurelia.bsky.social•25 days ago

For instance, sometimes our school counsellor will come teach lessons on mental health. Would the research suggest that that is more effective than a classroom teacher, or the same?

lucyfoulkes.bsky.social•25 days ago

hello yes - so one review found that interventions were generally more effective if they were delivered by an external person (more likely to be specifically trained in MH) than by the normal teachers. But due to lack of funds and resources, it often ends up being teachers doing it

arkle123.bsky.social•23 days ago

Hi Lucy,
Can you tell me which review found that interventions were generally more effective if they were delivered by an external person (more likely to be specifically trained in MH) than by the normal teachers?
Thank you.

lucyfoulkes.bsky.social•22 days ago

yes sure here you go:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272735821001227

arkle123.bsky.social•21 days ago

Oh thank you Lucy.
I’ll read that later today.

lucyfoulkes.bsky.social•26 days ago

The first category: people who already felt that school MH lessons were problematic. Some feel it’s self-evidently a bad idea to teach mental health content en masse to young people; some are surprised it’s happening at all. Some tell me they have been trying to say this for years.

lucyfoulkes.bsky.social•26 days ago

Others say they have felt concerns privately but it were worried to say out loud.

This is very interesting to me: many teachers & parents are not happy with MH lessons but are too scared to say it, for fear of seeming unsupportive about young people’s MH. So they all think their view is unusual.

lucyfoulkes.bsky.social•26 days ago

The second category: those who are surprised by the research but open to it. Like me, they had hoped or assumed that universal MH lessons were a good idea, but they have engaged with the evidence and theory I presented and have changed their mind (I am grateful to these people, thank you!)

lucyfoulkes.bsky.social•26 days ago

The third category: those that believe the evidence I’ve presented is wrong. They suggest ways in which the evidence might have missed something important, or they share personal stories of how they have seen benefits of lessons within their settings

lucyfoulkes.bsky.social•26 days ago

This is fair enough. Provided they are not rude, this viewpoint is fine with me – it’s understandable, particularly if they have personally witnessed benefits, which trumps distant statistics from trials

lucyfoulkes.bsky.social•26 days ago

But I think this illustrates something interesting about science comms and about human nature. That is: how difficult it is to convince someone of research evidence if it contradicts what they feel or want or need to be true.

udarnik.bsky.social•26 days ago

I’m not sure it’s fair enough. I understand the impulse, but it’s a failure of education and imagination - the imagination necessary to live and hold the franchise in a complex, modern society. As they say at the FDA, the plural of anecdote is not data.

sarahrichards.bsky.social•24 days ago

I’m very much in this category. As pupils at a generally enlightened, socially committed, (all girls) secondary school in the 1970s, we had psychological health support classes as 13-year-olds. My efforts to share what I thought were common patterns of thinking were met with blank stares, and such

sarahrichards.bsky.social•24 days ago

elaborately “caring” and prolonged attention from the specially employed psychologist in charge (I can even remember his name and it still gives me the shudders), that I eventually ran from the room and was plagued by a sense of unhealthy ‘otherness’ for months, if not years, afterwards.

lucyfoulkes.bsky.social•23 days ago

I'm really sorry that happened and that you remember it still so clearly now. It's an important illustration of what might happen for young people in the class who are already actively unwell or experiencing unusual or distressing symptoms

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