”Livet måste gå på räls” : Skolkuratorers förståelse av ungas psykiska ohälsa

Sammanfattning: Title: “Life must run smoothly” – school counsellors understanding of adolescents mental illness   Authors: Malin Evermyr och Lovisa Jonsson   Mentor: Emme-Li Vingare   Keywords: Mental illness, adolescents, counsellors in school, holism, psychosocial work, stress   Aim: The aim of the study is to describe and analyze school Counsellor’s understanding of mental illness among adolescents and the Counsellor's explanation of its development.   Methods: This study is qualitative and the empirical material was collected through loose structured focus group interviews. Three focus groups were used where each contained three school counsellors.   Results: After the focus groups were held, four themes regarding causations to mental health among adolescent emerged. The four themes are as follows; various expressions and possible causes of mental illness, a changed society, parent’s responsibility and lastly, school Counsellor's in the school as an organization. Each theme describes possible causes of mental illness through different levels and systems around the adolescent. In the last theme, it is also provided a description of how schools operate with mental illness and what it is like to work as a counsellor in the school environment.    Analysis: A system theoretical perspective, the cognitive stress theory and previous presented research in the field of adolescent’s mental illness was used when analyzing the result.   Conclusion. From the participants understanding of adolescent’s mental illness, following conclusion can be drawn; counsellors picture mental illness as caused by several intertwined factors. These factors concern both individual and systemic factors which have their starting point in society, families, new technology and the requirements of high-performance in school.