GoodSpace Schools Wellbeing Survey
Care Guidelines
Our Care Guidelines can help your team process the mental health risks identified and efficiently follow up with students after the GoodSpace Schools Wellbeing Survey.
The step-by-step decision support guidance suggests ways to respond effectively to your student's needs, minimising the one-to-one follow up requirements and prioritising to free up time to support the most in need,
This information is a guide and can be adapted for your school's unique needs and values
"The key is not to prioritise what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities." Stephen Covey
Urgent / Critical Alerts
Always start by looking at the Critical Alerts first.
These questions require an urgent response – ideally within 24-48 hours – and trigger a serious safeguarding concern.
The questions cover suicidal ideation and self-harm, potential domestic violence, and questions about sexual harm.
Students who have responded affirmatively to these questions will require a face to face risk assessment to understand the level of risk involved.
Some of these students may share that these concerns are historical issues, that they misunderstood the question, or they simply pressed the wrong button. There will be a minority of students requiring a safeguarding plan to be put in place.
Helpful links:
Examples of safeguarding plans
Undertaking Risk Assessment and Safety Planning in Young People (video recording)
Resources for schools - Mental Health Foundation
Health Navigator - Suicide prevention
Health Navigator - Sexual harm
Health Navigator - Family Violence
Guide to Understanding Self Injury for School Professionals
Next Steps
There are a number of alerts within the Wellbeing Survey categorised as High, Medium, Low, or Contact Me alerts.
Our guidelines give a step-by-step approach to respond to these alerts, prioritising student needs as well as legal considerations.
1. Bullying
It is important for schools to address bullying in order to create a safe, secure and supportive learning environment for all students. Bullying in school can lead to a variety of emotional and physical health problems, including anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, and poor academic performance.
Legal requirements for schools to address bullying vary by jurisdiction, but all schools must have policies and procedures in place to prevent, identify and respond to bullying. Schools should also provide ongoing training for staff and students to promote a culture of respect and inclusivity.
Due to legal requirements for schools to respond students who have disclosed they are currently being bullied, it is prudent to respond to these students as the next cohort following those with urgent needs.
How do you identify these students?
Schools are able to identify these students via the analytics dashboard by choosing the appropriate indicator of "I am being bullied at school''. Some schools may also choose to respond to students who have disclosed historical bullying or those who have stated they were the bullies.
Who should follow up with these students?
Depending on the available resources within the school, the responsibility for following up with and responding to students currently being bullied could sit with other accountable individuals within the school. However there needs to be clear pathways for reconnecting the student into counselling resources should they need additional wellbeing support.
For further information on responding to bullying in schools click here.
2. Students who have requested help
While the needs of some of these students may not be as high as others, the fact that they have asked for help means that they may be struggling significantly and are further along the health promotion cycle where they are looking to make a change.
How do you identify these students?
You can identify students who have asked for help in two ways.
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Using the alerts function: View all students who have asked for help by filtering responses by the ''contact me'' flag. You can filter further by using a specific survey code.
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Using the analytics dashboard: View students who have requested help by topic using the analytics dashboard.
How do you follow up with these students?
You can export the list of students who have asked for help to an Excel sheet, and students can either:
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Be followed up face to face with the appropriate individual within the school depending on the topic or;
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Be sent self-help material via email.
We recommend self-help material with links to appropriate NGOs and give the option to self-refer to the school wellbeing team if appropriate.
Areas where students are able to ask for help:
3. Eating Disorders
Eating disorders such as binge-eating disorder (BED), bulimia nervosa (BN), and anorexia nervosa (AN) are complex and potentially life-threatening psychiatric illnesses.
Within the Wellbeing Survey, we identify students with overall body image concerns and which of those students are taking excessive actions to reduce their weight.
How do you identify these students?
You can identify these students using the analytics dashboard by selecting the "Toku Tinana - Self-Care" section. You can click into the specific questions to see the individual students.
How do you follow up with these students?
To respond to individual students, follow the student referral pathway shared by Helen Amrein, available in our Resources section. Also available are resources to facilitate group responses and whole-of-school responses.
4. Anxiety and Depression
The first four questions in the Mental Health section of the Wellbeing Survey are dedicated to anxiety and depression. (PHQ4)
How do you identify these students?
You can identify these students using the analytics dashboard by selecting the "Hinengaro - Mental Health" section. You can click into the specific questions to see the individual students.
How do you follow up with these students?
As with the PHQ-4 questions, the recommendation is that, depending on the responses, some students may need to have a GAD7 or PHQ9. You might consider recommending an online self-test made available by Te Hiringa Haoura. On this site, students also have access to other resources such as contact numbers and self-help material.
Here is an example template wording for an email or other material to share with students as a response with links to above sites: anxiety and depression
Additional resources:
Prof Bruce Arroll's presentations on responding to the anxiety crisis in schools and getting students unstuck on our Resources page
5. Other areas of need
There are a number of questions throughout the Wellbeing Survey which identifies a number of other indicators. Schools may wish to review the aggregate data on the Analytics Dashboard to understand where the greatest needs are in the school.
Some of the identified areas may warrant an individual or group response, however in majority of cases, it can take a whole of school approach. This may be through the health syllabus or developing a whole of school strategy. An example of whole of school approach is a whole of school loneliness strategy which was established in one of our schools.
One of the key questions that is an overall indicator of adequate wellbeing consideration in a school is:
Evidence suggests that sense of belonging and sleep are two key modifiable risk factors that predict future risk of anxiety and depression. Schools may want to focus on these two specific areas when considering which area to prioritise following the other key areas above.
The information provided above is intended to offer general guidance and recommendations for schools seeking to address issues related to student well-being. While these suggestions are based on best practices and research findings, it is important to note that every school community is unique, and schools are ultimately responsible for determining the most appropriate actions to take in their specific context.
Accordingly, the recommendations provided above should not be construed as mandates or legal requirements, but rather as potential strategies that schools may wish to consider in order to support the well-being of their students.
It is important to recognise that no set of policies or practices can fully eliminate the risk of harm within and outside schools. Nevertheless, by taking proactive steps to create a culture of inclusivity and support, schools can help to minimise the occurrence of negative experiences and promote positive outcomes for all students.
We aim to keep this as a living document. Should you notice any glaring errors or would like to contribute or share material or content that you feel other schools might benefit from, please reach out to us on hello@goodspaceschools.com
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