The Government promised 80 mental health professionals for post-quake Canterbury schools. They are not just working in the classroom, ADELE REDMOND reports.

The message appears to have sunk in by the end of the hour-long session.

"Empathy is feeling what someone else is feeling," one of the girls explains.

She and five of her classmates at Wigram Primary School are taking part in a "girls' group" run by Mana Ake, the mental health workers visiting Christchurch schools as part of a $28 million Government commitment to provide 80 such staff – the equivalent of one mental health worker for every 500 primary and intermediate age schoolchildren in Canterbury and Kaikōura.

STACY SQUIRES/STUFF Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern hugs a Hornby High School student. Year 7 and 8 students at the school can access mental health services through Mana Ake.

Seated in a circle on the floor, social workers Jo Mason-Sievers and Christy Macgregor lead the session on kindness and empathy, the third of six planned for the six school-selected 8 to 10-year-olds.

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YouTube videos, drawing and other activities are punctuated with chatter about their families, the school cat, whether they've ordered Uber Eats, and Wigram Primary's upcoming relocation – "we're going to watch the school get bulldozed and then we're all going to cry – even the boys," one girl says.

After the group runs off for morning tea, the social workers decide one girl could use some individual help: She struggled to write down anything kind about her classmates, and said "there isn't anything interesting about me" in an earlier session on individuality.

"You think, 'does she hear nice things at home'," Mason-Sievers says.

JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/STUFF Jo Mason-Sievers, left, and Christy Macgregor, at Wigram Primary School.

More than 40 social workers, counsellors, nurses, teachers and clinicians from 13 non-government organisations are running Mana Ake in 98 schools across Canterbury. Wigram Primary was included in the first roll out of the programme to 15 schools in April.

It was then extended to 23 Kaiapoi, Papanui, Redwood and northeast Christchurch schools in July. By April, about 140 schools and at least 80 staff will be part of the programme.

Mana Ake is the first time Macgregor and Mason-Sievers have worked in schools – it's much more "complex" than they imagined.

They say it is often the higher decile schools, which do not have funded social workers, that are the most in need of help.

"With us being phase one, it was all so new. We didn't know what we were doing and the schools didn't know what they wanted from us," Macgregor says.

"Right away it's been an oomph, a big rush of requests for service."

The pair say parental separation and the lack of a male role model are common issues among the children they assist.

JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/STUFF Jo Mason-Sievers, left, and Christy Macgregor, provide mental health support to children in Hornby through Mana Ake. It's the first time either has worked in schools.

Demand for youth mental health services in Canterbury has increased 73 per cent since the earthquakes, and Canterbury University research has indicated as many as four in five local primary schoolers exhibit symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder.

Previously, 160 Canterbury schools shared just eight high-needs mental health staff, creating a "bottleneck" for assistance, Mason-Sievers says. Mana Ake is able to take on cases the other school mental health workers cannot.

The Canterbury Clinical Network, which manages the programme, has received requests to help 523 children since April. It takes about a week for a request to be picked up and acted on.

That action can involve group sessions like those at Wigram Primary or individual appointments, depending on the child's needs.

Tackling chronic problems like anxiety and truancy requires a focus on both schools and their families, and Mana Ake workers can be found in the playground at lunch time, talking to parents at the drop off, and visiting families at home.

Mason-Sievers goes to a four-child household at 7.30am to help implement a morning routine and get the kids to school on time.

She says addressing mental health concerns in a school is sometimes as simple as moving a child who "clashed" with his teacher into another class. In one case, Mana Ake workers supported a teacher who was being bullied by other staff.

JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/STUFF Christy Macgregor, a social worker with Mana Ake, runs a group teaching girls kindness and empathy at Wigram Primary School.

To succeed, the workers must build good relationships with their host schools. They attend school board meetings in the evenings, athletics days and other school events.

Macgregor says there has been more "openness" as Mana Ake establishes a "tighter grasp" on its role, and teachers and parents can see how it works.

Having previously worked in care and protection, it was amazing to deal with families who wanted her help: "They're realising it's just a light touch."

Mana Ake tackles only low-to-moderate mental health concerns, focussing on early intervention.

Mason-Sievers says the cases they can't take on are referred to specialist providers and scaffolded with support until the child can get an appointment.

"It's working smarter. We only have X amount of hours in a day ... we don't want people to be waiting [for help].

"We do our absolute best but Mana Ake is not going to have all the answers."

JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/STUFF Jo Mason-Sievers, left, and Christy Macgregor, talk to students at Wigram Primary School.

Some Child, Adolescent and Family services workers have worried Mana Ake may not have the capacity to treat many children, and will refer them back to the Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB), negating its secondary goal to reduce months-long wait lists for specialist services.

Programme leader Clare Shepherd says Mana Ake is collating data on how many children it refers to the CDHB.

It is too early to appraise any direct impact the programme may have on demand for other health services.

Shepherd is "confident" the current supply of staff is meeting demand, but says recent meetings with schools have identified a need to adjust the mix of staff in some Mana Ake teams.

One has no clinicians, only social workers, and another is solely comprised of men – "a rare resource".

"We have always said this to schools: 'we will start where we start and there might be some shifting around'," Shepherd says.

"We started at speed and we didn't have a lot of time.... As [staff] are building what works, we can share that so schools aren't having to reinvent the wheel."

JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/STUFF Jo Mason-Sievers, left, leads a group of 8 to 10-year-old girls in a clapping game.

Shepherd says the programme's broad scope was its strength, "and absolutely a challenge".

Team leaders for its geographic "clusters" have been appointed to liaise with the agencies involved and streamline Mana Ake's services.

Those agencies are now turning to the education sector to fill the remaining 40 Mana Ake rolls by the start of term 2, 2019, Shepherd says.

There is "always a risk" there might not be enough appropriately-trained local professionals to fill all 80 roles, but she feels the programme's flexible approach programme to mental health gives it options as the final roll-out approaches.

"Then our work will be just beginning."

Mason-Sievers already works with schools in Hornby and east Christchurch; Macgregor will move on to working with schools in and around Darfield at the start of next year.

The Wigram Primary School students let out a chorus of disappointment at this news, before trying unsuccessfully get out of drawing what they think kindness looks like to play a game of sleeping lions.

The women say they feel they are making progress with the girls, even if it's sometimes hard to keep them on task.

In last week's session, the children were asked to write down the names of the people they trust, Macgregor says.

"They wrote down each other."