Psychological services for children in Norwegian municipalities

1
Psychological services for children in
Norwegian municipalities
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PPT

• Pedagogical Psychological Service
• Norwegian schoolpsychology office.

• Professions
• Special teachers
• Speech therapists
• Social workers
• Psychologists

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Norway

• Aprox 4,7 mill. people.
• 1 096 000 children
• 431 municipalities

• 283 PPT- offices
• 2360 employees in PPT
• 287 psychologists (342 in 1997)

4
Legislation

• Law
• Section 5-6. Educational and psychological
  counselling service
• Each municipality and county authority shall
  provide an educational and psychological
  counselling service. The educational and
  psychological counselling service in a
  municipality can be organized in cooperation with
  other municipalities or with the county
  authority.
• The service shall assist the school in work
  on organizational development and development of
  expertise in order to improve the adaptation of
  tuition for pupils with special needs. The
  educational and psychological counselling service
  shall ensure that expert assessments are prepared
  where this is required by the Act. The Ministry
  may issue regulations concerning the other
  responsibilities of the service.

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PPT

• Organization
• A part of the municipality
• Sometimes as a separate organization
• Sometimes together with others, ex. Child care.
• On different organizational levels
• As a part of the school administration
• Directly under the city manager
• A few times as a part of a school.

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PPT

• Some of our tasks
• Give advices to teachers and parents
• Therapy with children and families
• Give advices to the school organization and
  kindergarten in teaching disabled kids.

• Evaluating children with special needs
• Write reports to the municipality confirming the
  need of special education.
• Help the school making individual teaching plans.

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Special education

• Law
• Before the municipality or the county
  authority takes a decision concerning special
  education, an expert assessment shall be made of
  the pupil's specific needs. This assessment
  suggests whether the pupil needs special
  education, and what kind of tuition should be
  provided.

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PPT collaboration

• Work closely with with
• Physio- and ergo- therapists
• Child health center
• Child-care
• Child psychiatry
• Specialist services

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Other units employing psychologists

• In Municipalities
• Maternal and child health centre
• Units established due to escalation plan for
  mental health care services

• Governmental units
• BUP special health care services for children
• Special units at hospitals in connection to
  specific diagnosis, e.g. autism

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Child caring trends 2007

• Institutions
• The ideal is no special schools
• More efforts directed against out-patients
  services both in psychic health care and in child
  welfare.
• Decrease in numbers of governmental institutions
  both psychiatric and in child welfare.
• Number of children taken care of by the social
  welfare system is growing.

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Child caring trends 2007

• School
• Inclusion as a central topic in school, both from
  an ideological point of view and economical
  reducing need of (extent of) special education?
• The government wants PPT to work with the school
  system rather than individuals, teacher wants
  help with individuals.
• Special education is rising slightly.

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Child caring trends 2007

• Psychic health
• Surveys is showing that number of children having
  psychological problems are increasing.
• Escalation plan for mental more children get
  psychic health both in municipalities and in
  hospital.
• PPT takes less responsibility for treatment.
• The municipalities are building up different
  units taking care of psychic treatment.

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Child caring trends 2007

• Economics
• In most municipalities there is a constant press
  to save money.
• High salaries gives less services in the
  municipalities
• A general trend moving more of the responsibility
  for care from the governmental level to the
  municipalities.

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Future

• To few psychologists (other groups taking over
  the positions)
• Different organisation in different
  municipalities
• The connection between schools and psychologist
  might be more loose.
• Our organisation has changed name from school
  psychologist to psychologists in the
  municipalities.