Frontline Talk: Teachers’ Linguistic Resources when Talking about Mental Health and Illness

Abstract

Talk about mental health and mental illness was examined using Potter and Wetherell’s system of discourse analysis. Participants were 8 health coordinators (teachers) from a range of New Zealand secondary schools. They were interviewed on the topics of mental health and mental illness. Verbatim transcripts from the interviews were analyzed, and three mental health and illness linguistic resources were identified: a mental health as illness resource, a mental well-being resource, and a mental illness resource. Each resource was examined, and the practical consequences of this language use was discussed in relation to the role of teachers as frontline mental health professionals.