WELLBEING
The Importance of Mental Resilience
Last week, 10 October, was Mental Health Day, a day recognised nationally, that aims to educate, raise awareness and provide advocacy for the importance of mental health. In Australia 1 in 5 people aged between 16-85 years, will experience a mental illness in a given year, while almost half (45%) of Australian’s will experience a mental illness in their lifetime. Looking closer at statistics relating to our students at DSC, on average the typical onset of mental illness is mid/late adolescence to young adulthood (16-24 years of age), with this demographic having the highest prevalence of mental illness. If we were to dig further, the World Health Organisation state that half of the mental illness actually begins to formulate at age 14, although most cases go undetected and untreated. These figures indicate the importance of ensuring the well-being of all our students as they enter a heavy transitional period in their lives.
As a way of combating mental illness, the World Health Organisation reports a growing need to help adolescents build their mental resilience. If adolescents are resilient they are able to ‘bounce back’ and cope more effectively during and after tough periods in their life. Furthermore, resilience helps foster an ability to creatively overcome challenges, achieve your goals and learn from experiences.
Simple ways we can help an adolescent develop their resilience include:
- Providing a consistent and reliable structure within the home made up of agreed rules/values
- Being present and regularly engaging with an adolescent about their life
- Listen and interact without judgement/interruption to make them feel heard
- Discussing emotions and how they are feeling on a deeper level
- Encouraging and promoting healthy risk-taking in areas of interest (academics, sports, music, theatre, arts)
Of course, there are many ways we can help an adolescent develop their resilience. There is an app that may be quite helpful for students called ‘SuperBetter’ which focuses on helping students to build resilience and by staying positive. https://au.reachout.com/tools-and-apps/superbetter
Timothy Blacker
Student Counsellor
The Resilience Project - Parent Information Evening
