Expertise from the two previously separate disciplines of education and mental health is combined in this book to examine the complex problems associated with today's high-stress, high-emotion learning and teaching environments - affecting learners and leaders of learning. Students of all ages have increasingly diverse capabilities and diagnosable mental health disorders; over-worked teachers face a constant stream of classroom, curriculum and organisational challenges; the under-resourced institution heads try to balance the needs of their students and their staff with their own with those of the education system. This book shows that collaboration between these experts is necessary to bring about top-down and bottom-up improvements in our schools and colleges, to foster healthy environments in which everyone can thrive and thus reduce the burden on our health and education systems - and society as a whole.
PART I: SETTING THE SCENE The need for an interdisciplinary perspective The synergistic nature of mental health and education The dynamics of the learner and the leader of learning Educational policy and issues of ownership Optimistic professional learning for teachers The classroom dynamic as a complex adaptive system The education system as a complex adaptive system PART II: THE WELL-BEING OF LEARNERS UK Government guidance on mental health in schoolchildren Attachment theory and forming relationships Early signs of psychosis Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) Teaching life skills and coping strategies Practising positive silence PART III: THE WELL-BEING OF LEADERS OF LEARNING The impact of institutional culture Expectations of leaders and tensions among staff Demands of the job, job-related stress and burnout Support for learning-support staff Meeting the needs of headteachers Cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) PART IV: CONTEMPORARY ISSUES The principles of mental health intervention in education Mental health and physical illness Applying psychosocial interventions Mindfulness Faith and conviction in educational settings Clinical supervision of leaders of learning Engagement of stakeholders in learning and teaching PART V: THE WAY FORWARD A comprehensive, integrated framework for evaluation Editors' reflections
