An exploration of educational psychologists' views of their role with child and adolescent mental health and psychological wellbeing

Abstract

This thesis explores the role of educational psychologists (EPs) working with mental health and psychological wellbeing. A mixed methods parallel design weighted towards the quantitative phase of the research has been adopted. An electronic questionnaire was sent to three local authority educational psychology services in the southern region of England to establish the nature of EP involvement in mental health and psychological wellbeing. The quantitative phase of the research provides a context for the more detailed qualitative phase. The process of Grounded Theory was followed to complete six in-depth interviews with EPs with a range of backgrounds and experience. The findings indicated that EPs are engaging in some mental heatlh and psychological wellbeing work, although this varies between individuals and services. The emerging theory focused on the need for EPs to have a clear vision of their role and work holistically along a continuum of practice to meet the needs of children and young people. Issues around training, opportunity and supervision were identified as important factors needing to be addressed to allow EPs to engage in more of this type of work. Other issues such as understanding the various perspectives on mental health, the location of the EPS, working with other professionals and dealing with governance also emerged as important areas to consider. Finally, a model of meeting the mental health and psychological wellbeing need of children and young people is proposed to aid services to review the various components that might facilitate EPs engaging in more work of this nature.