REGINA — The provincial auditor says better ways are needed to assess the mental health support required for Living Sky School Division high school students.
In her 2024 Report – Volume 1, Chapter 4, Provincial Auditor Tara Clemett assessed Living Sky School Division’s processes to provide timely intervention services including student counselling within the schools or referrals to outside agencies to high school students with significant mental health concerns. She made seven recommendations.
Living Sky has over 2,500 students in Grades 7–12, which includes at North Battleford Comprehensive High School. Its Grades 7–12 survey results in 2022–23 showed students experiencing moderate or high levels of anxiety and depression worsened since 2015–16 from 21 per cent to 32 per cent — worse than the 2022–23 Canadian student average at 26 per cent. Among the students tested, says the auditor’s report, 40 per cent of them seeing counsellors were in Grades 7 and 8.
The division employed 12 counsellors (part-time and full-time) at its 13 high schools as of November 2023.
The auditor found the division needs to assess counsellors’ caseloads to assess whether it allocates appropriate staffing resources to support high school students with significant mental health concerns.
The auditor’s analysis not only found the number of students seeing counsellors on a regular basis steadily increased since the 2020–21 school year as well as at the three high schools (North Battleford, Unity, and Spiritwood) that were tested, but also caseloads varied significantly between counsellors. For example, one counsellor was responsible for over 820 students at three high schools who could potentially have mental health issues.
“Without effective assessments to inform resource allocations, there is a risk that students who need ongoing counselling may not receive it timely,” said Tara Clemett. “Also, having information sharing agreements with key outside agencies supporting high school students with significant mental health concerns could result in better coordinated support.”
The auditor found Living Sky School Division also needs to:
- Formally track mental health emergencies (e.g., suicides, student deaths) and write critical incident reports as required by its Safe Schools Handbook to assist in assessing trends, root causes, and sufficiency of actions to potentially mitigate these emergencies.
- Have counsellors formally complete risk assessments and safety plans for students at risk of suicide to help inform appropriate support services (e.g., external referrals).
- Track student referrals to outside agencies (e.g., Saskatchewan Health Authority) and work with these agencies to develop information-sharing agreements to help the division assess the level of mental health supports (e.g., intensity and nature of supports needed, frequency of referrals) provided to students with significant mental health concerns. It would also help counsellors to know whether students who require mental health supports get the needed services outside of school hours.
- Evaluate and report key information (e.g., caseloads, critical incidents, outside agency referrals) to assess adequacy of intervention services provided.
Poor mental health can negatively impact student engagement and achievement, as well as affect student vulnerability to other at-risk behaviours such as substance abuse, suicide, and violence, stated the auditor’s report.
The Provincial Auditor is an independent officer of the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan. The Office promotes accountability and better management by providing legislators and the public with an independent assessment of the government’s use of public resources.
