Where has the community gone?

I have begun to question the place of community in relation to adolescent mental health and wellbeing. Many adolescents are not connected to their community. They do not have networks beyond their immediate family. For many adolescents school is the only place they have and feel a connection.
As educators we acknowledge the role school's play and the importance of developing a sense of connectedness amongst our adolescents, particularly our Students At Risk. We strive to promote this sense of connectedness through a variety of means including extra curricular activities, committees and by developing relationships with the students we teach.
I find myself questioning the lack of community, beyond the school gates, supporting our young people. Increasingly I find myself unpacking the lives of the teeagers I work with and discovering they lack community connections. They lack a support network beyond the school itself.

Where has the community gone?

It also came to the forefront, through my work with targeted classes to counteract the bullying and harassment amongst students within my site, that many of our teenagers do not have a sense of social responsibility. I provided students with a series of statements pertaining to bullying and harassment. Students were asked to read these statements and respond with any thoughts that came to mind (things they agreed with, disagreed with, found interesting and any questions). One common response was students' disagreement with the statement: "bullying is everybody's business". I asked students why they felt this, and their responses followed the logic that bullying was only the business of the victim and the perpetrator, if it didn't affect them directly it was not their business. I have since counteracted this idea within the class using an analogy involving the poaching of elephants for their tusks "we don't have elephants in Australia so why should we care if poachers kill all of the elephants oversee?". This provoked a passionate response form the students, and has begun to shift their beliefs as students have now begun to question their role in the bullying and harassment with the classroom. Howevver, I have digressed a little. What I wanted to highlight is the lack of social responsibility held by these stduents. Their lack of a sense of community.

Where has the community gone?

As a counsellor it is easier to support students when the family, school and other agencies work together. Sometimes this is impeded by a lack of knowledge about the services or agencies involved, a lack of communication between the different parties or and unwillingness on behalf of the family to work with the school and agencies/services. It is when we all come together, when a community builds around the student that things just work.

It is interesting how primary schools develop a greater sense of community than high schools. What happens? It is as if students transition to high school and "poof" the connections between school and home disappear. Part of this may be because teenagers are trying to seperate themselves from their parents and become more independent. Some of it may also be that high school's use students as a vehicle of communication between home and school by asking them to relay information through their planner/diary, notes, letters etc. I wonder if parents don't feel welcomed in the high school environment and if maybe for some their own negative experiences with high school means high school is not a welcoming place? What can high school's do to promote a greater sense of community?

Where has the community gone?

Historically we lived in small communities and the entire community was responsible for, and involved in, raising the younger generation. More recently the extended family was heavily involved in rasiing children. Now days the community is rarely involved and the extended family has become less of a influence, in some cases children are being brought up in single parent families with little support from the extended family, if any.

Where has the community gone?

I believe that community is a protective factor for adolescents. Students who have a sense of social responsibility are more empowered to take action. Students who can identify a network have a range of people they can seek support from and problem solve issues with. Students who feel supported are more likely to take safe risks and inturn increase thier resilience.

Western society is losing its sense of generosity. It isn't just our youth that lacks a sense of social responsibility, but many of the adults within our society and dare I say our government. I don't know if this is true but soembody said the other day that in Finland communities take responsibility of thier unemployed. If someone in a community is unemployed it is the community's responsibility to find them something to do to re-engage as a productive and valued member of the community. Everybody helps eachother. In Australia we don't all help eachother.

The question isn't where has the community gone but rather how do we begin to rebuild our sense of community?

Integrating Wellbeing Programs

A recent study conducted in Britain (by Professor Keith Hawton from the Centre for Suicide Research at the University of Oxford, and Dr Karen Rodham from the Department of Psychology at the University of Bath) revealed that more teenagers than previously thought self-harm.

“The reasons why boys and girls decide to self-harm are varied but the most frequent motive expressed by both males and females was as a means of coping with distress,” said Dr Rodham.

It is being said that adolescents don't have the approriate coping mechanisms to manage life's challenges and as such are turning to self-harm to manage stress and distress. Hawton and Rodham call to schools to implement preventative strategies to counteract the trend and better skill adolescents through mental health and wellbeing prgrams.

The vast majority of pupils said that their friends were the people they felt that they could talk to about things that bothered them and those who had self-harmed most often turned to their friends.

“This responsibility places a great burden on adolescents to support their peers, yet most adolescents have not in any way been coached in how best to do this,” said Professor Hawton.

“Attention to this aspect of support for adolescents should be an essential part of mental health education in schools, and it is great to see the development of the wellness programmes currently being trialled in some schools.

“Whilst effort to encourage adolescents to seek help through friends, family, help lines and clinical services are very relevant, prevention should be focused on reducing the problems that lead to thoughts of self-harm.

“This is where school-based initiatives can make the most important contribution to this important aspect of mental health.” ( "One In Ten Teenage Girls Have Self-harmed, Study Shows").

Schools are increasingly being called upon to implement wellbeing programs. The challenge is how do we support the integration and implementation of these programs?

Recently I gained a grant for mental health promotion (from SERCHS) to fund a Total Wellbeing program for year eight and nine girls. I targeted an enthusiastic staff member to copresent the program and have just finished running two half day sesssions with year eight girls. The program was targeted at the secret world of girls agression and developing assertiveness, self esteem and resilience. Approximately 80 girls participated in the program and feedback from the students indicates that they have increased their confidence to confront conflict in an assertive manner, aim to be proactive in offering friendship, and have begun to further develop empathy for others. The disappointing aspect of the program was the lack of value placed in the program itself. Students were choosing to attend their regular timetabled lessons, rather than participate, because they didn't see the value of the program. Parents signed notes to excuse their children from participating and staff took students out during the sessions to participate in other extra curricular activities. (I shouldn't harp on the minority who missed out, but rather focus on the benefits gained by the 80 odd students who did participate along with the support that was provided by the majority of staff and parents, but my pessimism eats at me).

A colleague of mine suggested we counteract the lack of perceived value by incorporating the program into the Health and Physical Education curriculum at year eight. The intention being to continue to conduct the program as two half day sessions and by associating the developed skills to a curriculum area we will attach a perception of value. In reality this is probably the way forward. Because the program is an important preventative strategy to counteract female bullying and the associated problems we need to increase its perceived value.

We need to promote the integration of wellbeing programs and mental health promotion. The Wellbeing Framework is being rolled out in South Autralia, along with the Child Protection Curriculum. These programs are essential to student wellbeing and need to be valued by the structures of our schools. We can't treat them as add ons. They need to be a part of the core curriculum. If we want our students to benefit from them they need to see that we value them, that they are a part of the core curriculum. In order for them to value them the school and its structures need to demonstrate the value. We need to imbed it.