Search

Student suicide is a serious issue facing intermediate/secondary schools. Teachers have the potential to play important roles in addressing such risk. This study utilized semi-structured interviews with six intermediate/secondary teachers in Newfoundland concerning their experiences of working with a student who had returned to the classroom after an attempted suicide. Coding was utilized to determine common themes among the data. Findings indicated teachers experienced shock, uncertainty, anxiety, and fear in terms of how to handle such situations. Participants also discussed various issues around access to student information and some noted limited knowledge of appropriate courses of action. They recommended proactive and inclusive policy/program development as well as teacher preparation in the area of preventing student suicide attempts. Study results are discussed in the context of the needs of teachers, along with a focus on teachers' perceptions of what they needed to support their students. The role of the wider school system in supporting teachers and students when it comes to suicide is also a major consideration.

The purpose of this study was to explore university students' expectations of confidentiality when they make disclosures to their university professors. A secondary purpose was to consider if students have a higher expectation of confidentiality when talking with Psychology professors versus professors in other disciplines. Students were asked to complete online survey scenarios assessing their expectations for confidentiality during various student-professor exchanges. Independent variables included professor discipline and disclosure location. Results suggested that students maintain a high degree of confidentiality expectations when making disclosures to their professors, especially when these disclosures happen in the professor's office. Implications for teaching and future research are discussed.

Turnover is a significant problem in the school system, but little is known about turnover and turnover intention among school counsellors. Previous studies point to several aspects of school counsellors' roles which may relate to turnover intention, and given the important role school counsellors play for students, parents, and other teachers, it is important to understand what factors contribute to turnover intention in this population. In this study we examined workplace stress, employee self-esteem, organisational identification, and organisational commitment as possible predictors of turnover intention among 98 school counsellors in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Tenure as a school counsellor, work-stress effort, and in-group ties predicted turnover intention. Implications and future research priorities are discussed with a focus on school counselling.

Teacher stress is a significant issue facing the teaching profession. The current paper explores individual stress management as a viable option to address stress in this profession. Specifically, Canadian teacher education programs are examined to identify the prevalence of pre-service teacher education courses focused on individual stress management. In light of the study findings, the author presents a curriculum framework for the development of a course focused on individual stress management for pre-service teachers as a means to facilitate increased availability of such coursework in Canadian teacher preparation programs. Potential areas of future research are also presented. (Contains 4 footnotes.)

Teachers have tremendous impact on school counselling service utilization in terms of teacher-counsellor consultation and student referral. Thus, ensuring that teachers understand the roles and responsibilities of school counsellors is critical. As teachers' understanding of the school counselling role can be impacted during preservice teacher training and little has been published on preservice teachers' views of school counselling, the authors of the current study opted to explore preservice teachers' perceptions of school counsellor responsibilities. Ninety preservice teachers from Newfoundland and Labrador completed the survey. Results suggested that although preservice teachers appear to have a moderate degree of knowledge regarding a subset of school counsellor responsibilities, more effort is needed to systematically inform preservice teachers about the responsibilities of the school counsellor role. Implications for training and for school counsellor practice are discussed.

Educational psychology is an important profession in the Newfoundland and Labrador school system. Educational psychologists have core training in the areas of education and psychology and offer a variety of services to students, families, and teachers in the school system. This article builds on Martin's reflections by exploring the evolution of the profession over the past 15 years. The history of professional training and education within the province is highlighted along with regulatory considerations for psychology registration. The implementation of a standard of practice for the role of the educational psychologist in the school system is discussed along with practice considerations for the role. Finally, recommendations and future considerations are explored.

Policy scoping reviews are an effective method for generating evidence-informed policies. However, when applying guiding methodological frameworks to complex policy evidence, numerous, unexpected challenges can emerge. This paper details five challenges experienced and addressed by a policy trainee-led, multi-disciplinary research team, while conducting a scoping review of youth Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Hepatitis C primary and secondary prevention policies, which occurred across and within sectors and jurisdictions in Atlantic Canada. How these challenges were addressed is described, as are suggestions for how the lessons learned may provide guidance to other policy scoping reviews. Implications for future directions are also discussed.

Background: Online peer support can be a valuable approach to helping people living with HIV, especially in regions with large rural populations and relatively centralised HIV services. Design: This paper focuses on a community-university partnership aimed at developing an online peer support programme in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Setting: Team members included community representatives and people living with HIV from the AIDS Committee of Newfoundland and Labrador (ACNL) as well as academic researchers. Objectives: Goals and objectives of the programme included reaching disconnected people living with HIV, reducing isolation among people living with HIV and connecting people living with HIV with support, education and professional resources. Method and Results: Through a process orientated and iterative decision-making approach, the team established the website, peer helping training curriculum, a recruitment plan as well as other core considerations. The current paper emphasises several process challenges and lessons learned from the development stage of the online support programme. Conclusion: It is hoped that this information will assist others in avoiding or overcoming similar process challenges arising during such work.

The purpose of this exploratory-descriptive study was to examine how guidance counsellors in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador would handle a specific verbal-relational bullying incident. Also of interest was guidance counsellor involvement and training in bullying programmes and Positive Behaviour Supports. Data for this study was collected using the Handling Bullying Questionnaire (Bauman, Rigby, & Hoppa, 2008). Results suggested that guidance counsellors tended to take on various responsibilities in addressing verbal-relational bullying (e.g. work with victims and bullies, disciplinary) and tended to enlist the support of other adults. It is argued that guidance counsellors assume important roles in addressing school bullying and that training in this area is critical for guidance counsellors. Study implications and future research directions are discussed. (Contains 10 tables.)

Educational psychology is in the midst of examination and potential change in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Unfortunately, there has been a paucity of published empirical research investigating educational psychology in the province. The current study surveyed educational psychologists from the four English districts in Newfoundland and Labrador to investigate areas such as current and preferred work activities, typical assessment and counselling practices, and psychological test access and perceived test usefulness. Results highlighted a range of current and preferred work activities, with psychoeducational assessment as the most time consuming responsibility. Although some findings varied between school districts, participants overall reported preferring increased amounts of time to devote to areas such as prevention, counselling, and research. Implications for training, future research, and practice are discussed. (Contains 4 tables and 2 notes.)