First Aid Is More Than A Broken Leg

Over the last two days I have completed a Youth Mental Health First Aid Course facilitated by Mental Health First Aid Australia. This is something I had heard about several years ago but the stars never aligned for me to complete a course. I was grateful to finally get the opportunity to attend. 

The other participants actually ended up getting COVID or being sent into isolation, so I ended up being the only one! This meant for a great 1:1 experience, but I also felt that I missed out on conversations with others a little. One thing I like about attending PD is to be able to compare stories and experiences with others. There was lots of scenario based learning across the two days though, which helped to solidify the learning a little.

This specific course was designed for youth because the median age for depression is 25, the median age for anxiety is 15, in 2020 480 Australians under the age of 24 died by suicide and 1 in 4 people experience a common mental health illness in one year. These stats really surprised me and were quite confronting. This really reinforced the importance of quality mental health education in schools (as well as the importance for as many adults as possible to be mental health first aid accredited). Check out some of my previous posts related to mental health here. Just like physical first aid, mental first aid should help people to have preventative strategies, rather than an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff. 

Beverley introduced me to the mental health continuum below. She encouraged me to consider these questions while observing young people; 
- To what level has someone moved towards 'illness'? How long have they been at this point of the continuum and how quickly did they get there?
- Are they bouncing back to 'health', staying where they are or moving closer to 'illness'? 
- Does the place on the continuum change at school, home and/or hobbies, or remain much the same?
These questions can help to gauge a students 'wellness', but also help to form a conversation with them and/or their caregivers. It is also very important to note that mental health is not the same as mental illness.

One thing that stuck with me, which shouldn't be surprising, was the comment "the more that we can support the brain in any illnesses they are presenting, the more likely they are able to learn". When we are having challenging mental days as adults, we generally aren't as productive, might not focus much or could have a shorter wick than usual (these are certainly my observations of myself). So of course if a student is feeling stressed, down, anxious or all of the above then they too may not be as productive as usual, may not be as focused or have a shorter wick. Teachers can see these as signs of disrespect or defiance, but really they may be signs that the student needs some support in that moment. Signs to look for and to ask the student about.

Here are several points that left me thinking a little further and for you to also ponder;
- Teachers should be modifying tasks like we would in a practical sense. We wouldn't ask someone with a broken leg to play a sport, so why would we ask someone with anxiety to 'keep on trying'?
- Empowerment is important for young people to make their own decisions about themselves. the feeling of powerlessness can significantly impact on mental health, so people need opportunities and tools to make decisions for themselves.
- "It is important that during the first response [to the person] we do it well, so that there is a positive result for them long term".
- Dendrites in the brain are responsible for neuro pathways and severe mental illnesses can impact on these pathways such as thickening them. Medication can help with repair of these dendrites, which can then help someone to have clearer thought processing and decision making. BUT medication is NOT the first answer for majority of people.
- We can recognise in student language, artwork, texts, interactions etc possible expressions or depictions which may indicate the student needs support.

Finally, the acronym ALGEE was referred to several times throughout the course. Like the WARM acronym for restorative conversations, ALGEE is a structure to create a conversation  and an action plan with someone as a mental health responder. To gain my accreditation, I had to demonstrate this structure through practice discussions in a range of scenarios. 

Even before completing this course I knew student mental health was just as important to understand and know how to respond to as physical health. Now, I feel even more so. It blows my mind that physical first aid courses are compulsory for all teachers in South Australia but mental health first aid is not - here's hoping that changes in coming years and that NZ mandates too!

Self Care > Stress

This year I am excited to have a Senior class again. I really enjoy teaching Seniors for a variety of reasons. Majority of the time they have chosen to be in that class and I like being able to have 'real' conversations with the students. I have a Year 12 SACE Health class - which is the equivalent of a Year 13 NCEA class. My biggest challenge for this class is learning about SACE and the Health course on the go, especially because Health as a SACE course is new in general, not just to Marryatville.

The first unit of the year is based around stress and stress management. Over the last few weeks the students have been involved in an Australian online learning platform called This Way Up. This website has been developed by a myriad of medical professionals, with the aim to help support people and their mental health. There are several programs people from anywhere and of any age can access for support, resources, strategies and tools for several areas of mental health. The creators of the website intentionally designed This Way Up to be accessible, to help reduce the barriers some people may face for self help.

My class have been individually completing the 4 lesson Coping with Stress program. I completed the program before the students, so that I could determine what the in-class activities and tasks were going to be. The program is scenario based and throughout there are several strategies taught and 'implemented' to help the character to identify, prevent and reduce stress. 

To encourage students to apply their knowledge of the tools and strategies they learnt from the program, I gave students tasks to do after each of the 4 lessons, as can be accessed here. These lessons are screenshots of One Note pages students received. One Note gives me real time information about what the student is working on (like Google Docs), which I have really missed! This has helped me to give more feedback to students and to track their progress. These tasks gave students the time to reflect individually on their stress levels, created opportunities for peer conversation and provided a foundation for class discussions, so were a great addition to the Coping with Stress Program. (Sidenote: I am finding it really challenging to ignite full class discussions with this group of students, but they are great chatting within their tables... watch this space!).

There are several great learnings from the program, but I did find there could have been some adaptations to make it more accessible and engaging. For example, the program could be available in multiple languages, there could be a variety of audio and video added and/or there could be interactive tasks throughout (it was mostly a story to click through). I did like that the students were able to access and complete the program at their own pace, which directly impacted on how much they 'got out' of the program. Students commented that the program itself 'wasn't very memorable' and that it was 'too long', but overall the stress unit (combination of the program and the additional tasks) was 'beneficial towards helping [them] to reduce [their] personal stress factors'. If you would like to learn a little more about stress and stress management in general, I blogged about this a few years ago.

I would recommend any teacher to complete this program to determine whether it may be beneficial for your students to also complete. If not, you will still learn/reflect/create/ponder some key thoughts/ideas/tools that you may be able to embed within your teaching. Irrespective of teaching though, these programs have been created with a great intent and will be helpful for anyone who would like further support for their mental health.

Remember, if you need help, don't hesitate to ask for it.

Australia: 1300 22 4636 (Beyond Blue)

New Zealand: 1737 (Need to Talk)

Discovering the Wonders of Kaurna Seasons

Weather is obviously an integral part of the outdoors and Outdoor Education. Not only do we want our OUED students to be aware of weather, we also want them to be aware of the environment and its history. The traditional custodians of the Adelaide Plains are the Kaurna people, and the Kaurna people have different seasons than we recognise in the Western world. 

The four seasons (Warltati, Parnati, Kudlila and Wirltuti) directly relate to weather patterns that we may recognise as summer, autumn, winter and spring and determine the lifestyle choices the Kaurna people make during that season. Here is a short video with a little more information. I met with our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education officers to learn a little more about the seasons, as well as how to pronounce the Kaurna language. Check out the video below for the correct pronunciation. Sidenote - I have noticed and reflected on how ahead New Zealand is with the inclusion of our indigenous language and customs - Aussie is still very much in the early stages and as a result the language is not yet embedded within day-to-day chat. So, others were learning with me too, not only the students.

Rather than having seasons linked to specific dates throughout the year, the times of the Kaurna seasons change. The general time of year is somewhat predictable, but the seasons actually start and end based off what the weather is doing and how the animals are acting and interacting with each other and the environment. For example, during Warltati the yabbies come out of the mud, during Parnati skin rugs and seaweed cloaks are made to prepare for the cold, the ducks and water birds are nesting during Kudlila and crustaceans are collected during Wirltuti. I really enjoyed teaching about these seasons and feedback from the students was that many thought it was interesting too.

Here is the task that I gave the students to encourage them to learn more and compare the Kaurna seasons to the Western world seasons. To extend this learning further, students researched another cultural perspective around seasons and weather around the world. Turns out there are heaps! Some cultures have 2 and others have 7+! 

To learn more about the Kaurna seasons, check out this detailed website.