When students face mental health challenges at school, it takes more than just teachers to help them through. Social workers and psychologists play crucial roles in supporting young people, but how well do these different professionals actually work together? A recent study from Melbourne schools provides fresh insights into this important question.
Researchers spoke with 42 staff members across four Catholic secondary schools to understand how teachers, social workers, and psychologists collaborate when supporting student wellbeing. What they discovered sheds light on both the successes and struggles of these partnerships.
The Numbers Don't Add Up
One major finding was that schools simply don't have enough mental health professionals. While professional associations recommend specific ratios of staff to students, most schools fall short. Social workers should ideally support no more than 500 students each, while psychologists work best with similar caseloads. The reality is quite different, with mental health staff managing 15 to 18 active cases per month while juggling hundreds more students who might need support.
This staffing shortage means social workers and psychologists spend most of their time on crisis intervention rather than prevention programs. They're putting out fires instead of teaching fire safety, so to speak. This leaves little time for the broader mental health education that could prevent problems before they escalate.
When Collaboration Works Well
Despite these challenges, the research revealed what makes interprofessional teamwork successful. Three key elements emerged: clarity about student needs, familiarity with both internal and external mental health services, and understanding which professional is best suited for each situation.
When these elements align, collaboration becomes more natural. Teachers feel comfortable seeking advice from mental health professionals, and social workers or psychologists can guide decisions about everything from schedule adjustments to family support services. The mental health professionals typically take on case management roles, coordinating care plans and serving as the primary point of contact for complex situations.
Professional development also plays a vital role. When social workers and psychologists provide training to teachers, it builds confidence and skills across the entire staff. Teachers who receive mental health first aid training, for instance, become more willing to engage with students in crisis rather than immediately referring them elsewhere.
The Resistance Factor
Not everyone embraces this collaborative approach. Some teachers prefer to maintain strict boundaries around their roles, viewing student mental health as outside their responsibilities. Others express feelings of inadequacy, saying they don't understand or can't cope with psychological issues.
Interestingly, the researchers found that even this resistance can serve students well. When teachers recognize their limitations and refer students to mental health professionals, they're still contributing to student support, just in a different way.
A bigger challenge emerges from unclear expectations about collaboration itself. Staff members often lack shared understanding of what interprofessional teamwork should look like in practice. While organizational charts might show impressive support structures, daily collaboration remains difficult to achieve effectively.
This research highlights a tension in school mental health support. When collaboration works smoothly, it creates comprehensive care that addresses both immediate crises and long term wellbeing. Students benefit from coordinated support that draws on different professional expertise.
However, when collaboration breaks down or when mental health staff become overwhelmed with crisis cases, the focus shifts away from prevention and community health approaches. Social workers, in particular, may find themselves unable to engage in the broader advocacy and systemic change work that their profession emphasizes.
Moving Forward
The findings suggest that successful school mental health support requires more than just hiring social workers and psychologists. Schools need to create cultures that value interprofessional collaboration, provide clear role definitions, and ensure adequate staffing levels.
Most importantly, all staff need opportunities to understand what different professionals bring to student support. When teachers, social workers, and psychologists appreciate each other's expertise and work together effectively, schools can move beyond crisis response toward comprehensive wellbeing approaches that benefit entire school communities.
This research provides valuable insight into how schools can better support both their staff and students by fostering more effective collaboration between different professional disciplines working toward the same goal: student success and wellbeing.
Testa, D. (2025). Interprofessional collaboration: How social workers, psychologists, and teachers collaborate to address student wellbeing. Australian Social Work, 78(3), 341-354.
Becoming an Ethical Counseling Psychologist: A Journey of Personal and Professional Growth
The path to becoming a counseling psychologist is more than just academic training—it's a deeply personal journey that transforms both who you are and how you practice. A recent reflective study reveals how this professional development mirrors the therapeutic process itself, offering insights into what it truly means to become an ethical practitioner in the field of mental health.
The Foundation: Humanistic Values in Practice
At its core, counseling psychology is built on humanistic principles that view each person as whole and deserving of respect. This approach emphasizes the importance of genuine human connection in therapeutic relationships, where both client and therapist can experience meaningful change through their encounter with one another.
The profession embraces what's called a pluralistic philosophy, which recognizes that people cannot be reduced to simple categories or predetermined ideas about who they are. This perspective acknowledges that individuals are complex beings embedded in social, cultural, and political contexts that shape their experiences and understanding of the world.
For practitioners, this means approaching each client with openness and curiosity rather than assumptions. It requires flexibility in choosing therapeutic approaches, often working collaboratively with clients to determine what methods might be most helpful for their unique situation and goals.
Personal Growth Through Professional Training
One of the most striking aspects of counseling psychology training is how it demands personal growth alongside professional development. Trainees must examine their own histories, values, and emotional responses as part of becoming effective practitioners.
This self reflection isn't just an academic exercise. It serves a practical purpose: therapists who understand their own patterns and triggers are better equipped to remain present and helpful when working with clients who may be experiencing intense distress or difficult emotions.
The training process often involves participating in personal therapy, peer supervision groups, and ongoing self assessment. These experiences can be challenging, especially for those who may have experienced marginalization or trauma in their own lives. However, they're considered essential for developing the self awareness needed to provide ethical and effective care.
Navigating Challenges in Clinical Practice
Real world clinical practice presents complex challenges that textbooks alone cannot prepare practitioners for. Working with clients who have experienced severe trauma, for instance, requires therapists to sit with uncertainty and distress while maintaining hope and therapeutic presence.
The profession's emphasis on collaboration can become complicated when working with individuals whose past experiences have made trust and cooperation difficult. In such cases, establishing safety becomes the primary goal, with collaboration emerging as an outcome of successful therapeutic work rather than a starting point.
Practitioners must also navigate the tension between following evidence based treatments and responding to each client's individual needs and cultural background. This requires ongoing judgment and flexibility, always keeping the client's wellbeing as the primary consideration.
Ethics as a Way of Being
Rather than viewing ethics as a set of rules to follow, many counseling psychologists understand ethical practice as a way of being in relationship with others. This perspective emphasizes transparency, authenticity, and genuine care for client welfare above adherence to any particular therapeutic model or technique.
This approach extends beyond individual therapy sessions to encompass broader social justice concerns. Many practitioners see themselves as advocates for marginalized communities and work to address systemic inequalities that contribute to psychological distress.
The profession recognizes that mental health issues often stem from social and environmental factors such as discrimination, poverty, and trauma. Therefore, ethical practice may involve advocacy work, community engagement, and efforts to make mental health services more accessible to underserved populations.
Building Professional Competence
Maintaining competence requires ongoing learning and self care throughout a practitioner's career. This includes staying current with research, seeking consultation and supervision, and continuously reflecting on one's practice.
Professional development also involves building connections with colleagues and participating in professional communities. These relationships provide support, accountability, and opportunities for continued learning. They also help combat the isolation that can lead to burnout and ethical lapses.
Self care isn't viewed as a luxury but as an ethical obligation. Practitioners who don't take care of themselves are at risk of becoming less effective or even harmful to their clients. This includes managing personal stress, seeking therapy when needed, and maintaining boundaries between personal and professional life.
The Ongoing Journey
Perhaps most importantly, the study emphasizes that becoming an ethical counseling psychologist is not a destination but an ongoing process. Even experienced practitioners continue to face new challenges, encounter clients who stretch their understanding, and discover areas for growth.
This perspective embraces humility and openness to learning. It acknowledges that working with human suffering and complexity requires practitioners to remain curious, compassionate, and willing to be changed by their encounters with others.
The field continues to evolve as society changes and new understanding emerges about mental health, trauma, and healing. Practitioners must remain adaptable while holding firm to core values of respect, dignity, and justice for all people.
For those considering a career in counseling psychology, this research suggests that the path requires significant personal investment and ongoing commitment to growth. However, it also offers the opportunity to engage in meaningful work that can transform both practitioner and client through the power of authentic human connection.
Amari, N. (2025). The Ethics of Being a Counseling Psychologist: Reflections From Training. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 00221678251352894.
Teaching Students to Use AI Transparently: A New Approach to Academic Honesty
Students are using artificial intelligence tools whether their professors allow it or not. Rather than fighting this reality, psychology educators are developing a new approach that teaches students how to use AI ethically and transparently.
The Reality of AI in Education
The rise of accessible AI tools has created challenges across universities. Students can now generate essays, solve problems, and complete assignments with AI assistance in seconds. Traditional approaches of banning AI haven't proven effective, as students continue using these tools regardless of institutional policies.
Psychology instructors are responding by embracing a different strategy: teaching students to disclose their AI use openly and thoughtfully. This approach treats AI as a professional tool that requires skill and ethical consideration, much like how researchers and professionals are beginning to handle AI in their work.
The MInE Framework
Educators are implementing a simple but comprehensive disclosure system called MInE, which stands for Model, Input, and Evaluate. When students use AI for assignments, they must document three key elements:
Model refers to specifying which AI system they used, including the version and date. This matters because different AI tools have varying capabilities and limitations, and these systems update frequently.
Input involves sharing the exact prompts or questions they gave the AI. This transparency allows instructors to understand how students interacted with the technology and ensures students think carefully about their requests.
Evaluate requires students to reflect on their AI use by answering two critical questions: Was their use of AI ethical, and how did they verify the accuracy of the AI's output? This step ensures students take responsibility for fact checking and understanding the content they submit.
Building Professional Skills
This disclosure approach does more than prevent academic dishonesty. It develops skills that students will need in their future careers. Many industries are already implementing AI disclosure requirements, from publishing companies requiring authors to disclose AI use in research papers to courts requiring lawyers to disclose AI assistance in legal documents.
By practicing these disclosures in school, students learn to use AI as a professional tool rather than a shortcut. They develop critical thinking skills by learning to evaluate AI output against reliable sources and course materials. They also strengthen their communication abilities by learning to prompt AI effectively and explain their processes clearly.
Addressing Ethical Concerns
The disclosure system also creates opportunities for important conversations about AI ethics. Students learn about data privacy concerns, understanding that some AI platforms store and use the information people input. They consider copyright issues, recognizing that AI systems may generate content based on copyrighted material.
Environmental and social impacts become part of the discussion too. Students can learn about the significant computational resources required to run AI systems and the human costs involved in training these technologies.
Supporting Learning Rather Than Replacing It
When students must disclose and evaluate their AI use, they're more likely to use these tools to support their learning rather than replace their thinking. The requirement to fact check AI output against course materials means students still need to engage with their textbooks and lectures. The reflection process helps them identify when AI is helpful and when they should rely on their own knowledge and creativity.
This approach also helps students develop what educators call "information literacy" – the ability to identify reliable information and think critically about sources. As AI becomes more prevalent, these skills become increasingly valuable.
A Flexible Solution
AI disclosure statements work across different types of assignments and class sizes. Instructors can adapt the basic framework to fit their specific courses and requirements. The approach is straightforward enough that students can understand and implement it quickly, yet comprehensive enough to promote ethical and thoughtful AI use.
Rather than viewing AI as a threat to education, this approach treats it as a tool that requires skill and judgment to use effectively. Students learn to be transparent about their processes, think critically about AI output, and develop professional practices they'll use throughout their careers.
Preparing for the Future
As AI becomes more integrated into professional life, students need to learn how to use these tools responsibly. The disclosure approach prepares them for workplaces where AI transparency is becoming standard practice. It also helps them develop problem solving skills and creative thinking by encouraging them to reflect on their process and iterate their approach.
This shift represents a move from prohibition to education, helping students become thoughtful users of AI technology rather than trying to prevent them from using it altogether. The goal is not to eliminate AI from student work but to ensure students use it ethically, transparently, and in ways that support rather than replace their learning.
Overono, A. L., & Ditta, A. S. (2025). The use of AI disclosure statements in teaching: developing skills for psychologists of the future. Teaching of Psychology, 52(3), 273-278.
