1. Bullying and Mental Health in Children and Young People

2. Learning outcomes Objectives How will we achieve this?
Aim of this session
To provide an overview on the links between bullying and mental health, to enable you to deal effectively with these issues within a school
Objectives
Understand the actions that can be taken to prevent and respond to bullying of children with mental health issues
Feel more informed and confident in addressing mental health and whole-school bullying issues
Feel more confident and capable of safeguarding children and young people with mental health issues
How will we achieve this?
Reflect on your current knowledge and beliefs
Discuss and debate with colleagues
This ppt should be used to facilitate discussion and debate. Encourage delegates to engage in discussion and give examples

3. Overview Importance of discussion and debate in this session
Key messages
Bullying: the what, where, when and who
Bullying, mental health and school
Effective practice:

4. Key messages
Children who are bullied and/or bully others are more likely to have mental health issues
Children who bully others have often been bullied
Bullying can have a detrimental impact on a child’s mental health
There are specific issues to consider when responding to bullying of children who have mental health issues

5. Q: What do you think bullying is?
Ask delegates to offer examples and discuss

6. What is bullying? ABA (Anti-Bullying Alliance) defines bullying as:
the repetitive, intentional hurting of one person or group by another person or group, where the relationship involves an imbalance of power
bullying can be physical, verbal or psychological 
it can happen face-to-face or through cyberspace
“You used to be able to go in to school, get your head down, and have different friends outside of school. You could separate it. Now you can’t.”

7. Who is involved. Who are the children that bully
Who is involved? Who are the children that bully? Who are the children being bullied?
Encourage delegates to discuss and share experiences

8. Characteristics of those involved
Reaction to stress
“There was so much going on in my life, that sometimes the only way to feel strong or powerful was to bully other people.”
Been bullied before
religion
disability
Self-preservation
Lack of understanding
different
weakness

9. Q: Where do you think bullying occurs?
Ask delegates to offer examples, encourage debate and discussion

10. Where does bullying occur?
In school - particularly in places where there is little or no supervision and where young people can be isolated
In lessons - both by other children and young people, and by teachers
In the home - by parents, carers or siblings, with this affecting their behaviour or well-being in school
On the journeys to and from school
In the community
Cyber-bullying
Encourage delegates to think through the paritcular issues associated with different places, particularly the impact of cyberbullying

11. Q: What mental health issues do you think are common in schoolchildren?
Ask delegates to offer examples

12. Mental health
1 in 10 children are thought to have mental health problems, such as:
Depression
Anxiety
Eating disorders
Self-harming
Parents and children may be reluctant to share information with the school due to stigma

13. Possible signs of mental health difficulties
Change in school performance
Signs of self-harming
Loss of interest in usual friends
Change in behaviour – quieter or more unruly
Change in weight

14. Q: What is the relationship between bullying and mental health?
Ask delegates to offer examples

15. Bi-directional relationship
Young person with mental health issues is bullied.
Mental health
Bullying
Young person develops mental health issues as a result of being bullied
Now we will look at the relationship between bullying and mental health.

16. Impact of bullying on mental health
Depression
Anxiety
Being bullied
Bullying others
Bullying
Mental health
Now we will look at the relationship between bullying and mental health. Research has shown that children who are bullied are more likely to suffer from mental health issues such as….
“[Bullying] wears down their confidence, their self-esteem, until they’re quite depressed, low. And also it leaves them feeling very isolated. Which is why people don’t reach out for help with bullying.”
Self-harm
Suicidal thoughts
Self-esteem

17. Impact of mental health on bullying
Depression
Bullying others
Anxiety
Being bullied
Bullying
Mental health
Research also shows that children with mental health problems are at risk of being bullied and/or bullying others
Self-harm
“If you self harm or have, like, an eating disorder, and your peers know about it, then they see you differently. It can make you a target.”
Suicidal thoughts
Self-esteem

18. How does the school environment influence this complex relationship?
positive
negative
Mental health education
Teachers low expectations
School
Poor response
identification
Changing or avoiding school
Non-stigmatising of mental health
Lack of understanding within school
Support for mental health
Bullying
Mental health

19. What can you do to minimise the impact?
Effective practice can be grouped into three broad categories:
Communicate
Anticipate
Respond
Lets explore the issues…

20. Communicate
What can we learn about effective communication from these thoughts from young people?
“You want to know that they won’t tell anyone, so you feel secure.”
“[After I had talked about the bullying and nothing happened] I started to get really angry. They [teachers] hadn’t listened. Made me feel I couldn’t talk to anyone. I started to get really angry and taking it out on my [family] at home, because no one had listened to me.”
Encourage debate and discussion about what we can learn from this

21. Anticipate What can we learn about anticipating risk?
“In films and stuff it’s like one on one in the corridor, but like these days, it’s more like groups and you feel like everyone is surrounding you and stuff, which makes it harder to spot, because if it was one to one and you saw them ... but in a group, they do it in a way that a teacher can’t see. Looks like friendship from the outside.”
“Teachers need to pick up on that [isolation and vulnerability] and take an active role in asking, rather than waiting to be told. I think especially with young people with mental health, I think a lot are less likely to come forward and say ‘I’m being bullied’ and say this is what’s happening to me. Teachers need to be on the look out. To intervene.”
Encourage debate and discussion about what we can learn from this

22. Respond
What can we learn about effective responding from these thoughts from young people?
“I think the worst thing teachers can do is if you say there’s a problem and they say, ‘OK I’ll talk to them’ then it makes it worse. Because you’re like I told you confidence and now it looks a hundred times worse.”
“It’s all played out on this big stage, so you’re like ‘everyone will know I’ve gone and told, everyone will think I’m a snitch.’ I’m going to get picked on more.”
Encourage debate and discussion about what we can learn from this

23. Effective practice will:
Provide support to enable the young person to develop and try out ways of dealing with the bullying, before further intervention from others
Be proactive in noticing changes in children and young people’s behaviour and approaching them to offer care, time and support
Identify bullying that is going unrecognised and unreported
Be alert to the signs
Watch out for those at risk
Ensure young people are supported with their mental health
Listen when bullying is reported
Consider the needs of both the victim and the bully
Ensure your language and behaviour does not stigmatise mental health
E.g. using the word crazy
Use positive rewards to improve self-esteem

24. Whole school actions Whole school policy on bullying
Interventions and responding
Teaching and learning about mental health
Support for children with mental health
Challenge stigma
non-discriminatory language and environment

25. Effective practice will:
Ensure young people know where to go and who to speak to about bullying
Provide support for the bully as well as the victim
Detect and monitor bullying
Treat any report of bullying as valid
Promote positive school-wide ethos towards mental health issues

26. Key messages (repeated!)
Children who are bullied and/or bully others are more likely to have mental health issues
Children who bully others have often been bullied
Bullying can have a detrimental impact on a child’s mental health
There are specific issues to consider when responding to bullying of children who have mental health issues