Mind moves:An in-service teacher training event - titled Positive Mental and Emotional Wellbeing of Young People - took a refreshing approach in Monaghan last week by turning the day over to young people themselves. Who better to talk about what teenagers need from the Social Personal Health Education (SPHE) programme designed to help them understand their emotional lives and teach them coping skills?
In addition to the teachers and guidance counsellors who were present, the 200-plus audience included parents, youth-workers and members of the local child and adolescent team all of whom shared a concern for young people's health. And, last but not least, a generous helping of uniformed transition year students who overcame their shyness and became increasingly vocal as the day progressed.
A panel of five young people from every corner of Ireland performed, entertained and spoke passionately about the experience of finding and losing mental health. Professional input from "suits" was kept in check; the presentations from the youth panel were backed up with national and international research to show how schools and services can work creatively to help young people find positive mental health.
No one died from PowerPoint on the day; people were moved, they laughed, agreed and disagreed with the speakers. The day was carried by an energy that you seldom experience at events like this.
Being young in Ireland today is clearly a scary business: it's confusing to be asked to cope with significant exam pressures and social expectations and yet to be treated like an unruly child by adults who always seem to know better.
"We are either seen as causing a problem or being a problem." "It's confusing to be treated like a child even though you're 15 or 16." "There is a lot of talking about young people but not a lot of talking to young people," were some of the comments made.
Mental health is an umbrella term that touches every aspect of a young person's life. It is affected by the quality of their relationships at home, their sexual health, bullying, and by drug and alcohol misuse. It is the most important issue for these young people but something they rarely feel safe enough to discuss.
Studies have found that young people in a crisis will most likely turn to their parents or a peer, followed by an older friend or a school counsellor. But for some teenagers there seems to be no one who they feel they can trust.
As 17-year-old Tim said: "You can't really ask your parents because what they went through isn't relevant to what's going on now; you can't really ask your friends because it's sort of dodgy to start talking about things that are going on in your head. It's scary."
These young people feel strongly that a successful school is one that will consider their emotional as well as their academic needs. They want information to understand and cope with their emotional lives and also information on how to access safe, confidential help. They want to be taken more seriously and not be dismissed as being simply "moody" or "childish". And they want to know how to help their friends, who may confide in them and leave them feeling worried and helpless.
There are many things they want to talk about, but as one of the panel said, "If the first adult you confide in shrugs you off, you may never make a second attempt."
Research has repeatedly shown that one in five young people will experience a significant mental health crisis in the course of a year. Many will never get support or any sort of professional intervention. Those most at risk include children who have experienced or witnessed abuse, neglect or violence, children whose lives are so disadvantaged that they lack access to resources that most of us take for granted, and those "lucky kids" who seem to want for nothing but who explode without warning and who act out in inexplicable and sometimes tragic ways.
One young woman on the panel spoke about what it feels like for a young person to be hospitalised. Her account was perhaps the most moving contribution on the day and deserves a column all to itself. She accepted she needed psychiatric care and medication, but she found her experience of hospitalisation quite dehumanising. It was a place where she felt she lost her identity as a whole person - where she was seen only in terms of her symptoms.
Most painful for her was the lack of belief in people's potential to recover: "Mental illness need not decide your future. People can learn to live within the context of their psychology. If we could only dispense with archaic notions of sanity and insanity and be honest and represent the mind as it is - plastic, in flux, at once vulnerable and incredibly strong - we could go a long way towards making things easier".
The director of SPHE, John Lahiff, and his team deserve our appreciation and support for bringing a positive focus on young people's mental health to schools. The need for SPHE was endorsed by all the young people who spoke in this seminar. Perhaps by listening to their voice, to their articulation of their own mental health experiences, we can move towards creating a society where mental health and mental illness are not overshadowed by silence and shame.
Tony Bates is chief executive of Headstrong - The National Centre for Youth Mental Health. Mind Moves