School mental Health Services administered by the Department of Public Health within the framework of the Community partnership between the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education. School mental health clinics serve an important segment of the community of students in the Kingdom of Bahrain.

The clinic has been established in September 2007 with a team of therapists consisting of two specialties from the Ministry of Health: consultant pediatric, a psychologist, and speech therapist. In addition to a Special Education Tutor, psychological guide, social worker from the ministry of education, and a support team composed of a medical and technical secretary.

The Clinic provides its services in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, which is represented by the Department of Special Education, the Department of Private Learning and the Department of Student Services, in cooperation with the primary Health services.

Goals of the clinic:

• Early detection of learning difficulties, psychological and behavioral disorders and the development of treatment plans in cooperation with the concerned authorities.
• Facilitate access to psychological services and reduce stigma associated with mental health.
• Improve the concept of mental health and reduce the stigma attached to psychiatry through awareness and educational programs and attention to preventive mental health.
• To strengthen the partnership and cooperation between the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health and to involve the community and civil society institutions to improve the academic level of students.
• Assessment and treatment of speech disorders.
• Attention to preventive mental health.

The Centre is providing its services in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, which is represented by the Department of Special Education and the Department of Student Services, in addition to the various departments of the Ministry of Health:

• Providing psychological counseling for patients transferred from health centers.
• Providing psychological counseling for teachers and social workers in schools as well as parents, for students of the schools of the Kingdom of Bahrain.
• Assessment and treatment of psychiatric disorders among students transferred from the Ministry of Education and Health centers.
• Evaluation and treatment of behavioral disorders among school students.
• Applying psychological scales and IQ tests.
• Apply tests for learning difficulties.
• Assessment and treatment of speech disorder.
• Organizing awareness lectures, training courses and workshops for mentors, teachers, parents and school students.

The therapist team will evaluate the cases transferred to the center where the psychiatrist will inspect and examine the students clinically and apply the necessary tests and after the diagnosis an individualized and family treatment plan is developed for them and a report will be provided to the concerned party to complete the necessary treatment.

The speech therapist has conducted field visits to schools in Bahrain to assess the current situation of speech disorders and to develop plans in collaboration with the school and parents and to transfer what is needed for individual treatment of the center, follow-up of individual cases and the conduct of counselling sessions.

Since most of the cases transferred are learning difficulties, the special education teacher applies the tests needed to identify learning difficulties and has developed and added modifications to some of the paragraphs and images of the diagnostic test for illustration purposes and has computerized the test, to enable some unresponsive situations as to implement theraputic courses for some cases at the center.