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.