How is your child controlling their mental?

The Ministry of Education will learn about NSW’s youth suicide prevention pilot program.

As a result of piloting youth mental health awareness programs run by the Ministry of Education at 18 schools, overall positive responses were generated.

Highlights:

– Youth Aware of Mental Health Program
– 18 schools in NSW participated in the program.
– In fact, it is evaluated as helpful in reducing students’ suicidal thoughts.
– Discussion and role-playing of groups on topics students suggest, such as depression and suicidal thoughts.
– The program is conducted by external experts, not school teachers, to create a more comfortable environment.

Teenagers, especially those who feel confused and anxious easily through puberty, can also be vulnerable to dealing with depression. As suicide prevention programs that can help alleviate students’ depression and suicidal thoughts are being piloted in some schools, there are positive evaluations that the program can help reduce suicidal thoughts. The program results are said to be published in international mental health journals.

The youth suicide problem is one of the chronic social problems in Australia and around the world. It is fortunate that a preventive program that focuses on this was piloted in Australia and achieved results.

The program is run by the Black Dog Institute, a non-profit organisation that strives to diagnose, prevent and treat mental health and depression. The official name is YAM (Youth Aware of Mental Health), or youth mental health recognition program. It has been piloted at 18 schools in New South Wales and is generating a very positive response overall.

As it is a program for students, feedback will be necessary. According to Asquis Girls’ High students in northern Sydney, one of the pilot schools, the program was entirely student-led. It also said that this allowed more students to participate actively.

Through the program, students had the opportunity to openly discuss rather heavy topics such as depression and suicidal thoughts and talk to their peers, which was conducted in a very comfortable environment. It is also said that the program was run by outside experts, not school teachers, from a third party’s perspective, providing an environment where students could feel more comfortable.

The advantage of this program is that anonymity was guaranteed in that it was conducted by external experts, not school teachers, as there could be cases where they shared their own intimate stories.

As part of the program, students were divided into small groups and led the discussion by voluntarily raising the issues they wanted to discuss. The topics suggested by the students were bullying, the pressure between peer groups, and conflict at home. After setting a subject like this, students discuss appropriate solutions with each other through a role-play method on dealing with problem situations related to the topic. Another purpose of this role-playing program is to develop the ability or communication necessary for students to identify mental health-related problems such as depression and teach them how to ask for help from themselves or others around them effectively.

Role-playing is a method that is often used as one of the general psychotherapy techniques, so I think it may have helped students understand the other person’s position and develop their ability to respond appropriately. Another significant part is that the program itself places great importance on students’ spontaneity.

If you unilaterally provide information or force students to participate, it may be somewhat difficult to open up their deep-seated concerns. The YAM program was conducted to allow students to participate voluntarily to apply from the application stage. Students who were reluctant or uncomfortable with the content could be deselected even while participating in the program, minimising the pressure on students.

A student who participated in the program said another advantage of the program was that he could get closer to his classmates through open discussions within the program. The program is designed to encourage students to feel supported and confident by allowing them to sit around in a circle so that they can look at all students of their age and share answers with each other.

Overall, I feel that various means and devices have been deployed to relieve students’ psychological tension. This program is also meaningful because it has found a breakthrough in heavy topics face-to-face, opposite to the widespread use of social media or media dependence among students. Moreover, as students rely on social media, serious conversations tend to decrease in real life, which is very helpful in teaching students how to build interpersonal relationships by overcoming them and providing them with opportunities to face and share thoughts in traditional ways.

Some of the students who participated in the program said they used the materials provided by the program to ask for help in their daily lives. In addition, by sharing specific ways to contact and act when counselling is needed through the program, more and more people have openly discussed various stress situations that students are experiencing with related civic groups and experts.

Statistically, it is more pronounced that high-school students have difficulties related to depression or suicidal thoughts than low-grade young students. The program is also mainly aimed at 9th and 10th graders and is run under Dr Lauren McGillibray, a psychologist from the Black Dog Institute. According to a survey of students who participated in the program, 51 per cent, half of the students, said they experienced suicidal thoughts two weeks before the program began. Six months after the program, the figure fell to 39 per cent in the same question. The survey statistics indeed showed a positive effect.

Source: Trinity Tuition College (www.trinitytuitioncollege.com.au)

Written by: Donghyeon Lee