According to school psychologists, the mental health of secondary school students is deteriorating over time. Psychologists most frequently deal with anxiety, self-harm, family problems, and panic attacks among students. Secondary students also often struggle with low self-esteem, depressive states, and unfortunately, thoughts of suicide are not uncommon. The COVID-19 pandemic and related measures accelerated these issues, and this situation continues to persist. These findings come from an in-depth survey among school psychologists at secondary schools conducted by GTS Alive, a company that also issues and manages ISIC and ITIC student and teacher cards.
“The survey also revealed alarming systemic problems related to the functioning of school psychologists in the Czech Republic. Despite the increasing mental health issues among students, many schools can only afford a psychologist on a part-time basis, which is far from sufficient in larger schools. In some places, school psychologists are completely absent,” said Radek Schich, director of GTS Alive.
“There is a lack of systemic funding; school psychologists are often paid only through consecutive European projects, with an uncertain future and lower salaries than teachers. The Ministry plans to address this issue for primary schools, but secondary schools are being overlooked, even though their students’ problems are just as serious,” added Radek Schich.
Students clearly no longer view visiting a school psychologist as a stigma as often as in the past. Most school psychologists agreed that between 10 and 30 percent of the students at their school have consulted them at least once. Over the longer term, 5 to 10 percent of students visit them regularly. Besides individual consultations, the majority of school psychologists also work with entire class groups.
In a typical Czech secondary school, an average of 11 to 20 students needed not only psychological but also psychiatric care in the past year. Regarding suicidal thoughts, most school psychologists reported seeing 4 to 6 students with such thoughts annually at each school. Responses indicating 7 to 10 or even 11 to 20 students were also common. Not a single school psychologist responded that they had not encountered any cases of suicidal thoughts during the entire year at their school.
The survey further showed that due to the unavailability of general psychological care covered by health insurance, school psychologists often have to fill this gap. They thus address not only school-related problems but also a wide range of external difficulties described above. In the Czech Republic, waiting times for psychologists often range from 3 to 5 months, sometimes even longer.
Private psychologists are an alternative, but many families cannot afford them as fees often run around 1,000 CZK per hour. Besides the shortage of child psychologists, there is also a critical lack of child psychiatrists. Moreover, when a young person is admitted to a child psychiatric ward, where beds are chronically scarce, they often lack follow-up psychological support after discharge.
School psychologists in the survey noted that many young people lose their sense of purpose, fear the future, and struggle with feelings of hopelessness and anxiety-depressive states. The use of antidepressants is common. Dysfunctional family situations also play a significant negative role, further accelerating students’ mental health problems.
Students often lack confidence, suffer from feelings of failure, are fragile, and escape into the online world. Consequently, they find it harder to form friendships, communicate effectively, and resolve conflicts. Older generations sometimes downplay students’ mental health issues and stigmatize psychotherapy.
The survey took place in January 2024. Initially, it was a qualitative oral survey. Based on this initial information, a detailed quantitative and qualitative written survey was developed and completed by 41 school psychologists from secondary schools (about one-fifth of the estimated total number of secondary school psychologists in the Czech Republic). Most school psychologists work part-time at two or more schools.
Most common issues school psychologists address with students:
(listed in descending order)
| Anxiety |
| Self-harm |
| Family problems |
| Panic attacks |
| Low self-esteem |
| Depressive states |
| Suicidal thoughts |
| Eating disorders |
| Social phobia |
| Performance pressure |
| Problems at school – with classmates |
| Problems in romantic relationships |
| Problems at school – with teachers |
| Problems at school – with academic performance, learning disorders, etc. |
| Search for meaning in life |
| Transgender issues |
| Feeling unfulfilled in life |
| Problems with peers outside of school |
Notes for editors:
GTS Alive s.r.o. issues and manages ISIC student cards, ISIC Scholar pupil cards, ITIC teacher cards, and, to a lesser extent, other cards in the Czech Republic. The company was established in August 2000 as the successor to GTS International in the Czech Republic. GTS Alive s.r.o. is part of the international GTS Alive Group, headquartered in Prague, with branches in seventeen countries across four continents.
Through the ISIC PORT chip identification system, GTS Alive also provides access security and electronic attendance systems for numerous primary and secondary schools. Additionally, the company offers travel and accident insurance to students.
Alive Cares – an organization affiliated with the multinational GTS Alive Group, founded in 2021 to support students' mental health and overall well-being during their studies. Its goal is to provide and facilitate relevant information for students on mental wellness, managing stress, coping with challenging life events during their education, and to improve general awareness of these issues. Alive Cares aims to monitor situations at specific schools and gather feedback from students on how their schools could offer more support. The organization focuses on connecting students with organizations or professionals they can turn to in times of need.
For further information, please contact:
Jan Šimral, media representative of GTS Alive
Tel.: +420 737 944 370
E-mail: info@jansimral.com
