Screening in schools: the acceptability and feasibility of guidance counsellors using YouthCHAT

ABSTRACT

The acceptability to, and feasibility of, guidance counsellors using YouthCHAT to screen New Zealand secondary school students for mental health issues and risky health behaviours was investigated. Participants were eight guidance counsellors using YouthCHAT in two schools. Over eight months, School A implemented a systematic school-wide screening programme, screening 43% of their student body, whereas School B adopted an opportunistic screening approach, screening <1%. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with guidance counsellors, and data were analysed using a general inductive approach. All participants reported YouthCHAT an acceptable tool; however, while it was well used in School A, usage rates were low in School B. With a structured protocol for screening in place, the use of YouthCHAT by guidance counsellors shows promise.

KEYWORDS:

• Screening
• mental health
• guidance counsellor
• risky health behaviour
• secondary school youth
• YouthCHAT

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the staff of the two schools for their participation in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Due to the nature of this research, participants of this study did not agree for their data to be shared publicly, so supporting data is not available.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hannah Clare

Hannah Clare is in her final year as a medical student at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. She took a year out from her medical studies to complete a Bachelor in Medical Science Honours degree during which she conducted this research project.

Margot Darragh

Dr Margot Darragh was a research fellow at the Department of General Practice & Primary Health Care, University of Auckland, New Zealand, until the end of 2020. During that time she worked on YouthCHAT, MatCHAT (maternal screening) and VeCHAT (screening for veterans) projects, and now holds an honorary position. She has a PhD in Health Psychology, and is a writer of crime mystery stories with a psychological twist, under the pen name M D Archer.

Felicity Goodyear-Smith

Professor Felicity Goodyear-Smith is an academic general practitioner who holds the Postgraduate Goodfellow Chair at the Department of General Practice and Primary Health Care, University of Auckland, New Zealand. One of her areas of research is the detection and management of mental health and risky health behaviour issues, and she is the lead developer of YouthCHAT. She has published over 300 papers in peer-reviewed journals, 20 book chapters and six books, the most recent of which are How to do Primary Care Educational Research (2021) and How to do Primary Care Research (2018), both with Taylor and Francis.