FEATURE: MENTAL HEALTH & WELLBEING


I could go on. Staff need to be fluent in these languages


A language for desolation and feeling hopeless


(understand the mental states involved and have the vocabulary to truly empathise). Otherwise you get the situation where an emotionally literate student writes one of these (see above intervention we use in schools) and the teacher feels inadequate to respond. In fact, research shows that two out of three


teachers worry that if they have a conversation with a teenager who self-harms, they will make matters worse. 6 This leaves far too many children and young people seeking alternative sources of help, e.g. internet sites which tell them to ‘cut deeper’ or simply ‘end it now’. Some school staff may protest and say, “Look


A language for shock


A language for feelings of not belonging and alienation from self or others


just bring in a counsellor”. But the maths doesn’t add up. A counsellor can only see a few children a week, a tiny drop in the ocean. In the UK, we have over one million children with mental health issues. We need school staff to have the conversational skills to meet the need of those who approach them desperate to talk. And it’s not asking teachers to be quasi-therapists but supporting them with training that replicates what happens in best parenting: deep listening, finding the words so that the child feels connected with and understood - all proven to calm body, brain and mind.7 Research also shows that helping a child to put painful feelings into words is actually a major protective factor against depression and anxiety.8 Repeatedly, TISUK have seen school staff being brilliant at these meaningful conversations. Many have saved lives as a result. So I entirely endorse the research findings of the Government “Green Paper”, ‘Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision’ (December 2017), which states: There is evidence that appropriately- trained and supported staff such as teachers, school nurses, counsellors, and teaching assistants can achieve results comparable to those achieved by trained therapists in delivering a number of interventions addressing mild to moderate mental health problems (such as anxiety, conduct disorder, substance use disorders and post- traumatic stress disorder).


Take-home messages • Every pupil/student needs to know what their school means by resilience in order to prevent those with mental health issues feeling stigmatised. They need to know that resilience (true psychological strength without the terrible fall out of physical illness) can only be built in a relational context.


A language for fear of going mad (We are finding that lots of teenagers are talking to our practitioners about this now during the pandemic)


December 2020


• We should never use the word resilience to describe people, or as a personality trait or out of a relational context, otherwise we are in danger of grossly insulting and shaming those who have


suffered adversity and as a result, have mental health issues.


• Teachers (starting in teacher trainer college) should be trained in how to respond to those pupils/students who seek them out for help with distress.


• Pupils/students should be given the message that it’s really healthy to grieve, to break down in tears, to talk about your despair and pain and we are here to listen.


In summary, let’s build a child’s psychological


strength with the provision of the EAA. Let’s ensure they feel welcomed when they bring us their vulnerabilities, their feelings of brokenness or their debilitating levels of anxiety. Because we know that an EAA, who meets a child in the fullness of their pain, as opposed to encouragement to ‘bounce back,’ brings about far better healing and recovery long term.


References 1 March, S. and Hill, A. (2020). Figures lay bare toll of


pandemic on UK children's mental health. The Guardian [online]. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/oct/21/figure s-lay-bare-toll-of-pandemic-on-uk-childrens-mental- health. The Princes Trust (2020) The Aspiration Gap. London:


The Princes Trust. 2 Chapman, B., Fiscella, K., Kawachi, I., Duberstein P.,


Muennig P. (2013). Emotion Suppression and Mortality Risk Over a 12-Year Follow-up. J Psychosom Res. 2013


Oct; 75(4). 3Werner, E. and Smith, R.S. (1992). Overcoming the Odds. High Risk Children from Birth to Adulthood. New


York: Cornell University Press. 4 de Terte, I. and Stephens, C. (2014). Psychological Resilience of Workers in High-Risk Occupations. Stress


and Health. 30(5), pp.353-355. 5 Panksepp, J., and Watt, D. (2011). Why does depression hurt? Ancestral primary-process separation- distress (PANIC/GRIEF) and diminished brain reward (SEEKING) processes in the genesis of depressive affect’,


Psychiatry, 74 (1), pp.5-13. 6 Young Minds (2012). Talking Self-harm [online]. Available at: https://cellohealthplc.com/pdfs/talking_self_harm.pdf,


London: Cello. 7Morelli, S.A., Torre, J., B., Eisenberger, N., I. (2014). The neural bases of feeling understood and not understood. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2014 Dec 9,121890-6. Felitti, V. (2019). Health Appraisal and the Adverse


Childhood Experiences Study: National Implications for Health Care, Cost, and Utilization. Perm Journal


2019;23:18-026. 8 Starr, L. R., Hershenberg, R., Shaw, Z. A., Li, Y. I., and Santee, A. C. (2020). The perils of murky emotions: Emotion differentiation moderates the prospective relationship between naturalistic stress exposure and adolescent depression. Emotion, 20(6), pp. 927–938. Illustrations from: Helping Teenagers Talk About Their


Lives: card set (2020) Dr Margot Sunderland and Nicky Armstrong (ArmstrongandSunderland)


Photo Credit: Pawel Opaska / Alamy Stock Photo. uwww.traumainformedschools.co.uk


www.education-today.co.uk 35


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