Building resilience: policies to improve child well-being

2019 ◽  
pp. 107-139
Author(s):  
2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (Supplement_4) ◽  
Author(s):  
J M Cachia

Abstract The Office of the Commissioner for Mental Health in Malta was established in 2011 to promote and protect rights of persons with mental disorders and their carers. This advocacy role includes monitoring of involuntary care, regular reporting on quality of care and care environments, in-depth analysis and recommendations on emerging issues such as mental health literacy, multidisciplinary care plans, drug addiction services and stigma and regular networking across ministries, agencies, departments, and NGOs, breaking silos and building bridges. Data for 2018 shows that acutely ill young people (10-29 year olds) were 30% of acute involuntary admissions. Males and foreign nationals from medium and least developed countries were more frequently represented. Substance abuse, mood disorders and psychotic disorders were the more common diagnostic groups. Building resilience and providing opportunities for early intervention are key elements of better mental health and well-being in the younger generation. Six examples of good practice in adolescent and youth mental health from Malta will be presented: Youth.inc by Aġenzija Żgħażagħ; Kellimni.com by SOS Malta; Youth Mental Health First Aid by Richmond Foundation; Research and Professional Education by ACAMH (Malta); Student Support Services at MCAST MALTA; Project Enlight! by Enlight Foundation. Two of these initiatives were recognised as best practices at European level in a peer learning exercise conducted by the Dutch Youth Institute. The recommendations are: more focused approaches towards young people with acute mental disorders with special attention to their specific needs; the identification of young people in trouble; work programmes that build resilience, life-skills and employment prospects; the intensified use of refined electronic and social media tools for promotion, prevention and early intervention; and active support and encouragement of peer group development and self-help initiatives. Key messages Networking stakeholders to break silos and build bridges. Resilience and early intervention for better mental health and well-being.


2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (06) ◽  
pp. 415-423
Author(s):  
Najjia N. Mahmoud ◽  
David Rothenberger

AbstractBurnout is a widespread problem in health care. Factors that contribute to enhancing engagement and building resiliency are widely discussed, but the data supporting these practices are not well understood. Interventions aimed at increasing engagement and promoting resiliency are targeted toward individual practitioners, health care institutions, and national organizations. Knowledge of the data supporting various kinds of interventions is vital to implementing change meaningfully. Prevention of burnout should start early in training with appropriate modeling and input from mentors and should incorporate stress management strategies. The most compelling data for building resilience requires institutions, physicians, and their support staff to align their values to create a mutual culture of wellness and engagement. It is imperative that institutional and national reform allows us as physicians to preserve our relationships with patients and colleagues, while also prioritizing time to reflect and pursue outside interests that recharge and restore.


2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Booth ◽  
Richella Ryan ◽  
Angela Clow ◽  
Nina Smyth ◽  
Susan Sharpe ◽  
...  

2017 ◽  
pp. 62-85
Author(s):  
Koreen Geres

English as an Additional Language (EAL) teachers o en become the trusted confidants of students who experienced forced migration. Although teachers are not typically trained to be counsellors or encouraged to take that role, what they do in the classroom can have a great influence on their students’ well-being (Pipher, 2002). In fact, teachers and schools can be major factors in building resilience and creating opportunities for adjustment (Pike, Cohen, & Pooley, 2008). When teachers provide strategies for well-being, youth are more likely to have the capacity to cope with tremendous social, educational, and emotional change. One classroom strategy to promote resilience is storytelling. In addition to storytelling being a viable strategy to encourage language learning (Freeman, Freeman, & Mercuri, 2002) and address emotionally diffcult issues for the writer (Hong Kingston, 2006), hearing youths’ stories can build community support (Theron et al., 2011). This article describes a study to explore how teachers of secondary students who were new to Canada used storytelling and what stories the students wanted to tell. The results of the study are discussed in regard to teachers’ reflections on storytelling with EAL students. Les enseignants d’anglais langue additionnelle (ALA) deviennent souvent les con dents dèles des élèves qui ont subi un déplacement forcé. Même si typique- ment les enseignants ne reçoivent pas de formation ou d’incitation pour devenir conseillers, ce qu’ils font en classe peut avoir une grande influence sur le bienêtre de leurs élèves (Pipher, 2002). En fait, les enseignants et les écoles peuvent constituer des facteurs importants dans l’accroissement de la résilience et la création d’occasions pour l’adaptation (Coventry, Guerra, MacKenzie, & Pinkney, 2003; Ingleby & Watters, 2002; Pike, Cohen, & Pooley, 2008). Quand les enseignants o rent des stratégies visant le bienêtre, les jeunes sont plus aptes à avoir la capacité de faire face aux changements profonds sur les plans social, éducationnel et affectif. Une stratégie pédagogie qui améliore la résilience, c’est celle de raconter des histoires. En plus de représenter une stratégie viable pour stimuler l’apprentissage des langues (Freeman, Freeman, & Mercuri, 2002) et aider le raconteur à affronter des questions difficiles (Hong Kingston, 2006), le partage de récits peut accroitre le soutien de la communauté (Theron et al., 2011). Cet article décrit une étude portant sur l’emploi de récits par des enseignants au secondaire et sur les histoires que leurs élèves, de nouveaux arrivants au Canada, ont choisi de partager. Les résultats de l’étude sont discutés en fonction des réflexions des enseignants sur le partage de récits avec des élèves d’ALA. 


2020 ◽  
pp. bmjspcare-2020-002774
Author(s):  
Mervyn Yong Hwang Koh ◽  
Hwee Sing Khoo ◽  
Marysol Dalisay Gallardo ◽  
Allyn Hum

ContentBurnout occurs commonly in palliative care. Building resilience helps to mitigate the effects of burnout. Little is known about the importance of leaders, teams and organisations in preventing burnout and promoting resilience in palliative care.ObjectivesWe studied palliative care clinicians with more than a decade’s experience looking into their experiences on the role leaders, teams and organisations play in burnout and resilience.Patients and methodsThis is a thematic analysis focusing on how leaders, teams and organisations influence burnout and resilience. 18 palliative care clinicians—5 doctors, 10 nurses and 3 social workers—who worked in various palliative care settings (hospital, home hospice and inpatient hospice) were interviewed using semistructured questionnaires. The mean age of the interviewees was 52 years old, and the mean number of years practising palliative care was 15.7 years (ranging from 10 to 25 years). The interviews were recorded verbatim and were transcribed and analysed using a thematic analysis approach.ResultsThe following themes featured prominently in our study. For leaders: being supportive, caring and compassionate, being a good communicator and showing protective leadership. With teams: being like-minded, caring for the team, sharing the burden and growing together. For organisations: having a strong commitment to palliative care, supporting staff welfare and development, open communication, adequate staffing and organisational activities promoting staff well-being were described as protective against burnout and promoting resilience.ConclusionLeaders, teams and organisations play an important role in helping palliative care teams to reduce burnout and promote resilience.


City ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachael Unsworth ◽  
Sue Ball ◽  
Irena Bauman ◽  
Paul Chatterton ◽  
Andrew Goldring ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Buket Kara ◽  
Rochelle Morris ◽  
Alice Brown ◽  
Pauline Wigglesworth ◽  
Joshua Kania ◽  
...  

Socioeconomic status is a strong predictor of normative development and well-being in young people. It is well-known that growing up in a socioeconomically disadvantaged context may lead to negative outcomes, both in childhood and in adulthood. Early intervention and prevention programmes are crucial for building resilience and improving health, well-being and equity. Bounce Forward is a school-based prevention programme implemented in Blackpool, a town in the United Kingdom facing multiple challenges. It was part of a whole town resilience approach and nascent global social movement known as the “Resilience Revolution.” Between 2017 and 2019, the programme was delivered in all Year 5 classes at every primary school in Blackpool (nschool = 36), reaching out to 3,134 students (ages 9–10; 50.4% male). The programme aimed to increase resilience in young people by building knowledge and skills about mental health and resilience through 10 sessions. In the current study, we longitudinally examined a range of protective factors, which are relevant to young people's resilience, as well as their mental health outcomes at three time points: before they participated in Bounce Forward, at the end of the programme, and 3–5 months later, when they started Year 6. The current sample included 441 Year 5 students (54.2% male) from 11 primary schools in Blackpool. Nineteen teaching staff also participated in the study and provided qualitative data regarding the impact of the programme on their students. Results showed improvement in some areas of young people's resilience after taking part in Bounce Forward. We also identified gender differences in several protective factors, indicating that boys may need further support. Teaching staff highlighted improvements in various areas; and also observed that their students have been using the strategies that they learnt from the programme. Altogether, findings suggested that young people benefitted from Bounce Forward. The programme is sustainable, offering a free to download teacher resource pack that allows schools to self-deliver it.


2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (10) ◽  
pp. 14-14
Author(s):  
Liz Crowe

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