Under the new banner of "Hearing You", pupils in 10 schools in the Dunedin area will once again be able to access mobile counselling services from next week, filling some of the gap left by the end of ChatBus.
The principal of Dunedin’s St Joseph’s Cathedral School, Jo Stanley, said ChatBus had loaned Hearing You a bus in which children could meet a counsellor.
Mrs Stanley spearheaded the effort to form Hearing You with St Bernadette’s School principal Debbie Waldron and Catholic Social Services social worker Mike Tonks.
After the ChatBus service closed last year because of a lack of funding, many schools had been looking for other ways to provide counselling to their pupils, she said.
"There is a massive need."
About 800 pupils at nine Catholic primary schools in Dunedin would be able to see counsellor India Hughes, a former ChatBus counsellor, from Monday. The new service would also work closely with Kavanagh College.
It had enough funding for one year, Mrs Stanley said.
The nine primary schools are: St Mary’s Mosgiel, St Joseph’s Cathedral School, St Bernadette’s School, St Francis Xavier School, St Mary’s School, St Joseph’s Port Chalmers, St Peter Chanel, St Brigid’s School and Sacred Heart School.
The schools had seen demand for counselling support rise in recent years, as waiting lists for outside counselling grew, Mrs Stanley said.
Other schools were coping as well as they could.
Tahuna Normal Intermediate School principal Simon Clarke said the school had no counsellor at present, which was a concern given the increasing general anxiety caused by Covid-19.
"What’s missing is a unified and cohesive system of mental health provision led by the Government," he said.
Green Island School principal Steven Hayward said the school had a temporary counsellor, who would stay for one term.
His school was lucky, he said.
"We have needy children, but every school does."
Ministry of Education operations and integration leader Sean Teddy said the ministry was providing counselling support funding to nine schools in the South.
