Health Administration Center, Gifu University, Gifu, Japan.
Nagasaki University School of Tropical Medicine and Global Health, Nagasaki, Japan.
Pediatr Int. 2020 May;62(5):529-534. doi: 10.1111/ped.14205.
Mental health problems among children present an important public health issue worldwide. Early detection, assessment, and support in schools might have a significant impact on mental health outcomes and child health and wellbeing. The purpose of this article is to show the mental health support system and its historical transition in Japan. In general, Japanese schools have a Yogo teacher (a school nurse) who works full time, as well as three types of mental health specialists who work part time: school counselors, advisors, and social workers. The regularity of visits from the three types of specialists depends on schools and regions. In general, school counselors visit schools more often than do other specialists, for approximately 4 h per week. The other specialists either visit the schools rarely or not at all because they are sometimes not hired. The strengths of the Japanese system included much provision of psychological consultations and a small budget compared to Western countries. Almost all school counselors are clinical psychologists with master's degrees who are skillful at handling students' mental problems. Moreover, they are capable of providing intensive psychological counseling in school settings in Japan. The weakness is that there is no specialist available who supports students' academic or school life. General teachers take on the role of the Western countries' "school counselors." There are also few specialists who can be approached for social support compared to Western countries.
儿童心理健康问题是全球范围内一个重要的公共卫生问题。在学校进行早期发现、评估和支持，可能对心理健康结果以及儿童的健康和福祉产生重大影响。本文旨在展示日本的心理健康支持系统及其历史演变。一般来说，日本的学校配备有全职的 Yogo 教师（校医），以及三种兼职的心理健康专家：学校辅导员、顾问和社会工作者。这三种专家的访问频率取决于学校和地区。一般来说，学校辅导员比其他专家更频繁地访问学校，每周大约 4 小时。其他专家则很少或根本不去学校，因为有时他们没有被雇佣。日本系统的优势包括与西方国家相比，提供了更多的心理咨询，并拥有较小的预算。几乎所有的学校辅导员都是拥有硕士学位的临床心理学家，他们擅长处理学生的心理问题。此外，他们还能够在日本的学校环境中提供密集的心理咨询。其不足之处在于，没有专门的人员来支持学生的学业或学校生活。一般教师承担着西方国家“学校辅导员”的角色。与西方国家相比，能够获得社会支持的专家也很少。
