UNDERSTANDING MENTAL ILL-HEALTH
exercise, simple quiet time, meditation, and deep breathing, to name a few elements – all of which are introduced via unique activities such as paper boat races, origami chatterboxes, and flying paper planes. It is an award-winning and psychologist- endorsed intervention that has been the subject of a successful pilot study conducted by the University of West London. The Book of Beasties game and concept have been scrutinised by teachers, SENCos (Special Educational Needs Coordinators), parents, and, most importantly, by children, and praised by Professor of Psychology at the University College of Dublin, and founder of the Jigsaw children’s charity, Dr Tony Bates, as being a ‘revolutionary’ resource.
Making mental health accessible to young people
Dr Bates said: “[Book of Beasties] is fresh and really creative. You’ve brought language to mental health that makes it accessible for young people, and rather than make symptoms the ‘bad guys’, which is what normally happens, you present them as ‘Beasties’, each with their own needs and fears, and each needing compassion and comfort, rather than trying to ‘get rid of them’. I really think Book of Beasties is a revolutionary approach, and will change how young people think about their mental health for the rest of their lives.”
Educating via a gaming platform hasn’t always been as accepted as it is today, especially in mental health education circles. We have certainly faced a cold shoulder or two when presenting Book of Beasties to educators and other healthcare workers. Research organisation, Games and Learning, which advocates the use of games in learning, found that 17 per cent of teachers worldwide use games for education on a daily basis, and 80 per cent of learners reported that they would ‘be more productive if their learning was more game-like’.2 With this kind of statistic it would be foolish to not sit up and take notice.
Why a whole-school approach? Mental Health charity, Heads Together’s website, Mentally Healthy Schools,3 states: ‘A mentally healthy school is one that adopts a whole-school approach to mental health and wellbeing. It is a school that helps children flourish, learn, and succeed, by providing opportunities for them, and the adults around them, to develop the strengths and coping skills that underpin resilience.”
The whole-school approach targets all children and teachers, rather than just those with particular requirements or needs. It is the most inclusive approach to any type of education, and while there are other resources specifically aimed at SEND pupils, mental health is without question something relevant to a wider audience. Life brings with it situations that can be deemed traumatic; failures knock us back,
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The first version of ‘Book of Beasties’ was launched at a tabletop gaming convention at London’s Alexandra Palace.
and if we are not equipped to deal with such things, they are going to have a more significant impact on our mental wellbeing. Resilience is arguably one of the most important skills we can teach all children, enabling them to pick themselves up, both physically and mentally, and to continue moving forward. However, resilience isn’t just the ability to help oneself, but also to ask for help, as well as to be able to help others.
Keeping children engaged Keeping children engaged in school is essential to the teaching of resilience. Offering classes or activities that appeal to all demographics, and increasing the interventions that don’t isolate or categorise particular children, make for a more open and positive approach to any subject. Department of Health & Social Care agency, Public Health England (PHE), says that engagement at school can help children to overcome adversities, while positive school experiences benefit the
building of resilience.4 PHE adds: “There is also evidence that play can increase resilience, which is part of the reason that the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency’s independent review of the primary curriculum proposed increasing the role of active, play-based learning.”
Book of Beasties takes all of this into consideration, and while it has had a noticeably positive impact on many SEND children, we are firm believers that such education should be curriculum-based and taught school-wide.
‘Bungled funding’ Data released by Health Service Journal last year showed that a mere 30 per cent of children referred to CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) were seen within four weeks, while 4,309 waited for over 18 weeks, and 992 more than a year.5 Could it be because only 6.7 per cent of mental health spending is injected into CAMHS, according to the Local Government Association, or perhaps due to Government funding of the Early Intervention Grant being cut by almost £500 m since 2013, and being projected to be cut by a further £183 m by 2020?6 Or, maybe it is down to public health funding, which covers public mental health services, plummeting by £600 m since 2015. Admittedly it is easy to point the finger, but it is hard not to get frustrated when, on the one hand, you have the media onslaught of ‘fight the mental health crisis’ headlines, empty promises to inject ‘mega numbers’ into healthcare plastered across buses, and shelved plans to train all teachers in mental health awareness. Then, on the other hand, you have 19,000 children being admitted to hospital for self-harm, and CAMHS referral rates increasing five times faster than the associated workforce.
Those needing help now – a lost cause?
Book of Beasties is ‘a whole school-approach, early intervention mental wellness resource’ aimed at Key Stage two and three pupils.
These grandiose plans, and assurances of big buck payouts, are wonderful and exciting, but what about those that need help now? Are they just a lost cause that were unfortunate enough to ask for help too soon? There are other resources available that could be put in place to help those that need it sooner, rather than later, as well as to prepare others should they need that help later on. Numerous lists of these resources can be found on such websites as the aforementioned Mentally Healthy Schools, BESA (British Educational Suppliers Association), and Young Minds,7 and while some are quite pricey, others are less so. This – I think – may be the part of the answer to this ‘crisis’; being quite a niche market audience, the cost of these tools can easily skyrocket way beyond the budget of many schools. As we know, these budgets leave a lot to be desired, with The Guardian reporting a £5.4 bn shortfall in funding since 2016, impacting more than 90 per cent of schools in the UK.8
OCTOBER 2019 | THE NETWORK
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