Mental Health Support for Schools

NOTICE PAPER NO. 1752
NOTICE OF QUESTION FOR ORAL ANSWER
FOR THE SITTING OF PARLIAMENT ON 1 MARCH 2023

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament
Ms Mariam Jaafar,
MP for Sembawang GRC

Question No. 4285 

To ask the Minister for Health what are the plans for the further rollout of mental health support teams in school, including independent schools

Answer

MOH has developed various mental health services catering to youths. In schools, the Response, Early Intervention and Assessment in Community Mental Health (REACH) collaborates closely with the school and family to provide mental health interventions, such as depression, anger and anxiety management, coping skills and social skills group programmes to students with mental health needs. MOH will continue to work with the hospitals to ensure there are adequate resourcing for the REACH teams to cope with the needs from schools.

In the community, we have set up services including the Youth Community Outreach Teams (CREST-Youth), Youth Integrated Teams (YITs) and Community Health Assessment Team (CHAT) that reach out and engage at-risk youths. These services work closely with the schools and Institutes of Higher Learning to provide mental health screening and assessments, emotional support and psychosocial interventions, and link youths to the appropriate resources and other services for further support.