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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Mental Health
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1454280

The School as an Arena for Mental Health Work: Exploring the Perspectives of Frontline Professionals on Mental Health Work in Norwegian Schools

Provisionally accepted
Anita Berg Anita Berg *Lily Appoh Lily Appoh Kristin Ørjasæter Kristin Ørjasæter
  • Nord University, Bodø, Norway

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Children and adolescents are increasingly facing mental health problems. Schools play a crucial role in promoting mental health, as they provide a unique setting where children interact with adults outside their homes. This paper explores mental health work in Norwegian schools from the perspective of frontline professionals namely, class teachers, social workers, and public health nurses. We conducted four focus group interviews involving 22 of these professionals from nine primary and secondary schools. These school professionals view mental health work as an integral part of the school’s mission and associate their work with promoting mental well-being, strengthening self-esteem, and building resilience among pupils. The professionals noted an expansion in their roles and an increase in expectations to undertake mental health work, even though it is not formally part of their job descriptions. Additionally, they play varied and complementary roles in supporting the pupils’ mental health daily. As school professionals, they strive to balance universal health promotion with providing individualized mental health care. These results call for coordinated efforts and interdisciplinary collaboration within the school and discussion regarding the school’s role in mental health care for children and adolescents.

    Keywords: adolescents, Children, Focus Groups, mental health work, roles, School professionals, sustainability, universal health promotion

    Received: 24 Jun 2024; Accepted: 23 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Berg, Appoh and Ørjasæter. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Anita Berg, Nord University, Bodø, Norway

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.