Depression screening measure for school nurses

Abstract

School nurses lead on delivering the Healthy Child Programme (Department of Health (DH), 2009) for school-aged children, hence they have expertise in health promotion, protection and prevention at an individual, community and population level. Since April 2013, the commissioning of key public health services for school-aged children has transformed with this responsibility being devolved to local authorities. Therefore, the provision of school nursing services has altered with the emphasis on productivity, demonstrating the effectiveness of their role and in providing a framework to deliver improved outcomes which meet the current and future health needs of children and young people (DH and Public Health England (PHE), 2014). One of the key current and future public health issues, which has significantly developed in children and young people over the last decade, is emotional health and wellbeing. Approximately one in ten 5-16 year olds are known to have a diagnosable mental health condition and 50% of these lifetime cases begin by the age of 14 years’ (Green et al, 2005: xxi). Furthermore approximately ‘18% of children living with a parent who has a mental health problem are twice as likely to develop emotional disorders themselves’ (Green et al, 2005: xxi). However, most worrying is the World Health Organization’s (WHO, 2001) prediction that at its current rate depression will be the second most disabling disease globally by 2020