MHiPS
Hello from Mrs Loverso!
Last week in our school newsletter I shared some information about mental health literacy. Mental health literacy is not just the knowledge of what mental health is, but it’s the ability to take action to support, prevent or manage mental health needs. Experts are recommending that we learn about ways to best cope under stress and the strategies we need for help seeking when we are challenged.
Mental Health Literacy for Supporting Children
Last week, I introduced the concept of mental health literacy for supporting children and it’s 3 key variables. These include building knowledge of mental health challenges; recognition of mental health challenges in young people and attitudes toward mental health. For us at PPPS, our journey with these concepts is just beginning.
Mental Health Literacy for Supporting Children involves adults developing their:
- Knowledge of what good mental health and wellbeing looks like in children.
- Knowledge and attitudes about risk factors and causes of mental health concerns, as well as sources of support for children and their caregivers.
- Ability to recognise the signs and symptoms that indicate a child may be developing mental health difficulties.
- Skills to communicate with children and their carers about children's mental health and providing supportive strategies that are developmentally appropriate.
- Understanding of related concepts such as social and emotional wellbeing and resilience and how these relate to mental health.
- Knowledge of, and the ability to implement, strategies to support students with mental health concerns.
Knowledge of how to seek appropriate mental health information and available supports and referral pathways, both in and out of school.
The MHiPS program provides us with the scaffolding necessary for our school to develop skills in all of these areas. By increasing our own mental health literacy (teachers and staff), we can be pillars for our students to develop their own child mental health literacy. Child mental health literacy looks like students recognising changes in their own mental health, building coping and resilience, help seeking strategies and more! Our aim is to have children be armed with good practice in mental health and wellbeing so they can continue to learn and grow healthily.
Plenty Parklands is beginning our journey by building knowledge and learning more about the attitude and behaviours of students needing mental health support. These things take time and we are committed to a long and steady road for the benefit of our students.
