Community-school collaborations: community counsellors’ perceptions of school counselling in Singapore

ABSTRACT

School counselling is not an isolated school-based intervention but rather as part of a more holistic social wellbeing system where there are many stakeholders. Studies have examined students’, school counsellors’, teachers’, and administrators’ perceptions of school counselling. Research that focuses on the perceptions of community counsellors of school counselling is rare. This paper reports on a quantitative survey study of community counsellors’ perceptions in Singapore. Findings indicate some expectations such as school counsellors could offer some family counselling and perceptions such as confidentiality could be strengthened in schools, were widely held among community counsellors. Findings also suggest deeper understanding of both school and community counsellors’ perceptions is needed to strengthen collaboration for better mental health support for children and youths.

KEYWORDS:

• School counselling
• community-based counsellors
• stakeholders’ perceptions

Acknowledgments

Approval given by the University of Southern Queensland Human Research Ethics Committee for the project on ‘From a distance: Community Counsellors’ perceptions of school counselling in Singapore. Ref: H16REA153. Approval granted on 31/08/16 until 31/08/2019.

Disclosure statement

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

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Poi Kee Low

Dr Poi Kee Low is an Associate Professor in the School of Social and Health Sciences at James Cook University Singapore. His research interests include interdisciplinary collaborations in social care and school counselling, counselling for vulnerable groups and refugees’ education and mental well-being. He is registered Psychologist, Counsellor and Social Service Practitioner in Singapore. He is also a Chartered Psychologist and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society.

Luke van der Laan

Dr Luke van der Laan is an Associate Professor in the School of Humanities and Communication at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia. His research interests include professional cognitive abilities and work-based learning higher degree methodologies and research.