Participants suggested that, if an issue comes up, staff should listen empathetically and provide an engaged response. A lot of mental health clients have trouble verbalizing and it is important to listen when they find a way to express their thoughts. Literacy staff may need to refer learners to their worker if it is an issue outside the scope of the program. They could say something like, “You know what, we are focusing on ... You should go and talk to your worker about that.”
It was recognized that it is important to link mental health clients to a support person if they do not already have one and if necessary, someone from the program may need to accompany the learner to a counselling session. The level of trust has to be very high. Literacy staff need information about where to go for support.
Clients will often disclose when they change or forget medication; participants recommended saying something like, “How does that affect your learning?”
Often other learners may not be accepting of learners with mental health issues. Literacy staff suggested doing some awareness training with students. For some, recognizing the issues and accepting them can take a leap of understanding, especially in cultures where there is a stigma to mental health issues. Developing a module that presents this information in an interactive format would be something that could benefit learners. It could be accompanied by a DVD/video if one is available.
It was suggested that it would be helpful if support workers prepared their clients by discussing how much information to disclose and by encouraging clients to describe their coping strategies and any signals or flags to literacy program staff.
All the mental health workers who took part recognized the importance of meeting with teachers and said they would be able to find time to do this. They believe it would be beneficial to go over important issues and make sure that everyone is clear about responsibilities and how to deal with issues such as what to do if the client is having a bad day. It is important to be explicit.
Mental health workers said they could provide education so that teachers understand how to deal with clients who have serious mental illness. They could help translate the mental health component and let teachers know more about different illnesses and how that might affect learning.
Literacy staff wanted written information available in their programs that would help them work with people with mental health issues.