Services needed to provide mental health supports at Living Sky School Division: Sask. auditor

An empty classroom is seen in this undated file photo.

More intervention services are needed to provide support for students with mental health challenges at Living Sky School Division (LSSD), according to the newly released Saskatchewan auditor’s report.

Every year, the school division gives students from Grade 7 to Grade 12 a survey meant to collect information on their wellbeing, including their levels of anxiety and depression.

Tara Clemett, Saskatchewan’s provincial auditor, said the LSSD was chosen for an audit because the results from the student surveys increased from previous years. Students’ levels of anxiety and depression worsened from 21 per cent in the 2015-16 school year to 32 per cent in the 2022-23 school year.

“You have a high percentage, just in the specific school division at 32 per cent with moderate or high anxiety and depression that was higher than the Canadian average. So it was definitely an area of risk for the specific school division,” she said during a media availability on Wednesday.

The 2022-23 Canadian average of students with anxiety and depression was 26 per cent, the report said.

LSSD is responsible for over 2,500 high school students in northwest central Saskatchewan, including schools in North Battleford, Unity, and Spiritwood.

Since January 2018, LSSD had eight student suicides, with three of those in 2023.

LSSD employed 12 counsellors at its 13 high schools as of November 2023. However, it was found that one counsellor was responsible for about 820 students at three high schools who could potentially have significant mental health issues.

“The Living Sky School Division isn’t, I don’t think, monitoring overall the extent of supports that they need to enhance [student] support and the amount of counsellors that they ultimately should have,” Clemett said.

Three schools in the division were audited, including North Battleford Comprehensive, Unity Comprehensive, and Spiritwood.

There were 24 more students with mental health concerns seeking counsellors at North Battleford Comprehensive between the 2022-23 school year and the 2023-24 school year, an increase of 73 to 97, or 33 per cent.

There were 11 more students with mental health concerns seeking counsellors at Unity Comprehensive between the 2022-23 school year and the 2023-24 school year, an increase of 30 to 41, or 37 per cent.

At Spiritwood, there was no increase in students seeking counselling from 2022-23 to 2023-24, with the number remaining at 27.

The audit tested 20 student files with mental heath concerns at the three high schools who saw a counsellor in the 2022-23 school year. Of those, it was found that counsellors assessed four students as at risk of suicide on the same day the student expressed suicidal thoughts to the counsellor.

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The audit found that of those four students, counsellors used a Columbia-Suicide Assessment Rating Scale to assess two students and the counsellor appropriately developed a safety plan for the high-risk student. However, for two other students, counsellors did not use an assessment tool.

The audit report said not documenting decisions for students at risk of suicide based on standard assessment tools increases the risk of appropriate services not being provided when needed.

It was also found that counsellors do not always document safety plans for students at risk of suicide.

Overall, the audit said LSSD does not track, analyze, or report information such as the number of students with significant mental health concerns, schools with high numbers of students with mental health concerns, counsellor caseloads, the number of students referred to outside agencies, and critical incidents.

Clemett made seven recommendations to make sure students get proper mental health supports.

• Analyze counsellor caseloads to determine whether it has proper resources to support high school students with mental health concerns
• Have counsellors use standard risk assessment tools when documenting decisions for students at risk of suicide
• Have counsellors document safety plans for high school students at risk of suicide
• Track referrals of students to outside agencies, including the Saskatchewan Health Authority, and work with them to develop information sharing agreements
• Have LSSD and the Ministry of Education develop and implement information sharing agreements with key outside agencies to share relevant information relating to high school students’ mental health concerns
• Track and prepare mental health critical incident reports for its high schools
• Analyze and report key information to senior management and the Board related to timely intervention services provided to high school students with significant mental health concerns

Poor mental health can affect student engagement and achievement and affect vulnerability to other at-risk behaviours such as substance abuse and suicide, so effective assessments are needed to make sure proper intervention services are implemented, the report said.