OSBIE. Risk Management: The Mentally Healthy School. Ontario s Comprehensive Mental Health and Addictions Strategy

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1 OSBIE Risk Management: The Mentally Healthy School Building school communities where all staff and students are safe and can flourish What would that look like? Why did the Edu Act change?? Dr. PJ Carney Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board Mental Health ASSIST Ontario s Comprehensive Mental Health and Addictions Strategy Open Minds, Healthy Minds: a comprehensive, ten year strategy designed to address mental health and addictions needs in Ontario pub/mental/pdf/open_minds_healthy_min ds_en.pdf 1

2 School Mental Health ASSIST is a provincial implementation support team designed to help Ontario school boards to promote student mental health and well-being Three Areas of Focus: 1.Promoting Organizational Conditions and Leadership 2.Building Capacity in School Mental Health 3.Providing Implementation Support for Mental Health Promotion and Prevention Programming Recognition that Schools have a Critical Role in Maximizing Safety in Enhancing Student Well-Being in Recognizing when Students are Struggling in Helping Students To/Through MH Services Every School, Every Classroom Roughly one in five students in Canadian schools struggle with a mental health problem that interferes with their day to day functioning. 2

3 Flourishing Positive emotion (fun and enjoyment) Engagement (passionately absorbed; flow) Meaning (sense of purpose, spirituality) Accomplishment (competence) Positive Relationships (valued; belonging) Seligman, 2011 OPTIMAL MENTAL HEALTH Flourishing resilient / active / connected / engaged emotional and spiritual well-being No Illness no symptoms Mental Illness serious symptoms Languishing Keyes,

4 Achievement & Well Being The needs of youth can be met only if the various systems work together in partnership. EMOTIONS Homes, worksites and classrooms are environments packed with positive and sometimes negative emotions At any given moment staff and students in a school environment may be experiencing large amounts of satisfaction, hurt, anger, joy, disgust, shame, surprise or enjoyment. Carney,

5 Mental Health ASSIST! The needs of youth can be met only if the various systems work together in partnership. Positive Mental Health May be defined asthe capacity of each and all of us to feel, think,and actin ways that enhance our ability to enjoy life and deal withthe challenges we face. It is a positive sense of emotional and spiritual wellbeingthat respects the importance of culture, equity, social justice, interconnections and personal dignity. Public Health Agency of Canada,

6 Well-Being Resilient Emotionally Self Aware & Managing, Socially Aware & Responsible Decision- Making Relationship Enjoyment Engagement Meaning Competence Connection Flourishing Active LifeStyle Balance Fitness Sleep Nutrition Spirituality Carney, 2015 Well Aware: Developing Resilient, Active and Flourishing Students (in press, Pearson Canada) Students and Staff with a Sense of Well-Being Feel: Able to cope with adversity - are emotionally resilient Physically well, nourished, and active Physically and psychologically safe Included, valued and supported at home, school and in the community Competent and able to participate in productive activities That others care about their well-being Carney, 2015 Well Aware 6

7 Whole School Approach We can all can benefit from better skills to identify and regulate our emotions, and understand how our emotions affect our social relationships. Social and emotional learning (SEL) can exist as an intentional, authentic process that is woven into the school culture with common understandings, competencies, and language. Carney, 2015 Whole School Approach All members of the school community including teachers, education assistants, parents, administrators, consultants, custodians, and bus drivers can learn to apply SEL language in all their interactions. 7

8 Social/Emotional Learning Core Competencies Self-awareness: The ability to accurately recognize your emotions and thoughts, and their influence on behaviour. Self-management: The ability to regulate your emotions, thoughts, and behaviors effectively in different situations. Social awareness: Showing empathy and understanding for others Relationship skills: Forming positive relationships, working in teams; dealing effectively with conflict Responsible decision making: Making ethical choices about personal and social behaviour CASEL Learning Skills Instruction 2013 Guide of Effective Social Emotional Learning programs, CASEL, recommends 23 programs Not necessary to adopt a program, can embed systematic strengths-based instruction Research indicates that instruction is most effective when it is: Sequential (connected and coordinated instruction) Active (active forms of learning and rehearsal) Focused (on specific personal or social competencies) Explicit (specific targeted skill development) safe instruction 8

9 Working Smarter Not Harder Stuart Shanker, 2013 Restorative Justice Leah Kuypers, 2011 A useful definition of emotion is that it represents a complex psychological state that involves three distinct components: subjective experience physiological response behavioral or expressive response (Hockenbury & Hockenbury, 2007) 9

10 Awareness The complex psychological state we call emotions, may be brought to our mental awareness from the physiological and muscular sensations in our body. Body Topography of Emotions subjects 10

11 Plutchic Wheel of Emotions What is Self Regulation? Self-regulation is the ability to manage your own energy states, emotions, behaviours and attention in ways that are socially acceptable and help to achieve positive goals, such as maintaining good relationships, learning and maintaining well being. Stuart Shanker 11

12 You are able to self-regulate when you have learned the skills: You can tell when you are feeling calm and alert. You recognize when you are feeling stressed, and what is causing the stress. You work to develop strategies to deal with the stress. You have the ability to recover well after a stressor. Stuart Shanker Self-regulation and marshmallows! QuickTime and a decompressor are needed to see this picture. 12

13 The Marshmallow Test showed us that... (Mischel, 1998) Around 30% of four year olds could wait. Children who could wait scored an average of 210 points higher on their college entrance exams. The ability to wait was also a predictor of sociability and resistance to drugs. Poor self-control can have a cascading effect. Why is self-regulation important? Research has shown that difficulties with self-regulation are a factor in the development of mental health problems (not causal but can be predictive). Examples include: Internalizing problems (anxiety, depression) Externalizing problems (acting out, opposition, conduct problems) As well as physical problems including: Alcoholism Obesity Diabetes Cancer Heart Disease Immune System Disorders 13

14 Five Domains of Self-Regulation Shanker, 2013 Biological Domain Emotional Domain Cognitive Domain Social Domain Pro-social Domain Biological Domain Refers to the level of energy in the human nervous system. Ability to maintain energy, stay calm, recoup, develop healthy routines Our ability to adjust our arousal states quickly and easily to match the energy needed to calmly deal with the task at hand. A key foundation skill for the other domains. 14

15 How We Help Ourselves or Our Students Regulate Biologically? Visual Environment (e.g. reduced visual distractors, natural light) Auditory Environment (e.g. predictable schedules, soothing sound to alert ourselves, (morning alarm clock?) Seating (e.g. Cushions, Laptops) Activities (e.g. Noon hour walk? DPA ) Nutrition (e.g. water, caffeine?) Emotional Domain In a school community we can all contribute to help students regulate their emotions For example: Some children. Become overly excited when praised Become frustrated when unable to solve a problem Become highly fearful with faced with specific triggers such as a supply teacher or a particular task or activity Each of us must also regulate our own emotions. 15

16 Why Emotions Matter A child who is depressed, frightened, anxious, angry, frustrated or ashamed may find it challenging to concentrate and learn. Same for adults. Emotion regulation is as much about up-regulating positive emotions as it is about down-regulating negative emotions. The calmer, happier, safer, more curious, confident and interested the individual, the better they will learn. 16

17 Five Domains of Self-Regulation Shanker, 2013 Biological Domain Emotional Domain Cognitive Domain Social Domain Pro-social Domain Being Active In addition to the evidence that physical exercise helps to alleviate mental health problems, research also tells us that individuals with common mental health disorders tend to have reduced physical activity (Oeland, Laessoe, Olesen, & Munk-Jorgensen, 2009). 17

18 Being Active Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain provides compelling evidence and a comprehensive explanation for the effects of exercise on the brain. (neurotransmitters) John Ratey, 2008 Being Active Inactivity causes the brain to whither, while physical exercise actually causes the brain s interconnections to replenish. Ratey 18

19 Being Active Exercise is simply one of the best treatments we have for most mental health problems (Ratey). At Naperville school a daily exercise curriculum for all 19

20 Well-Being Resilient Emotionally Self Aware & Managing, Socially Aware & Responsible Decision- Making Relationship Enjoyment Engagement Meaning Competence Connection Flourishing Active LifeStyle Balance Fitness Sleep Nutrition Spirituality Carney, 2015 Well Aware: Developing Resilient, Active and Flourishing Students (in press, Pearson Canada) 20