Flying Under the Radar: a look at Travellers, New Zealand’s innovative, youth friendly, resilience programme

Opportunities for growth Adolescence is a challenging time involving change, loss and transition Opportunities for growth Without support and skills young people can feel distressed Possible increase in incidence of mental health concerns Background to Travellers _ the Min of Ed is currently looking to develop resources for teachers and students because of the understanding of the difficulty of transitions of young people from primary to secondary schools

The WHO Four Level Whole School Approach to School Change Focus of Travellers Create an environment conducive to promoting psychosocial competence and wellbeing Mental health education: Knowledge, attitudes & behaviour Psychosocial interventions & problems Professional treatment Whole school environment Part of general curriculum Students needing additional help at school Students needing additional mental health intervention 3%-12% of students 20%-30% of students Entire school community All students & teachers

A school-based targeted small-group programme for young people who identify themselves as facing tough times in their first year of secondary school New Zealand’s Response

Development No existing programmes Transition to secondary school can be traumatic for some young people Young people often under the radar in schools Can be dealing with significant issues (walking wounded) No programmes existed in NZ that specifically provide for students who were finding the transition to Secondary school difficult. Such students present as outwardly conforming / appearing to cope but are often dealing with significant life issues. We wanted to find a way to identify such students and provide a structured programme to support them / increase their resilience Our aim is for better connected, more resilient young people feeling good about themselves. Hopefully this leads to better educational and health outcomes for them

Development Designed for students who self identify that extra support would help Designed to be “school owned” Provides a structured programme to build student resilience and well being Trialled for 4 years in a range of schools Now available NZ wide Cognitive Behaviour Therapy - CBT

How it works 3. Travellers programme 2. Data 1. Online questionnaire Provided on all Year 9 students taking survey Assists Counsellors to select students they think will benefit from Travellers Allows schools to select students for other programmes the school may run 1. Online questionnaire Short online real-time web-based questionnaire School’s total Year 9 student cohort ~30,000 NZ students have taken 3. Travellers programme 6% of students = 1800 students 8 Week programme 90 minute sessions 2 facilitators Students are able to record their thoughts and feelings. Anything they write is captured by the questionnaire. Questionnaire works on self revelation – often the first time students have had the opportunity to reveal their concerns in a confidential / safe way. to select students they think will benefit from undertaking the Travellers programme

Data Global / Individual Feel good – Yes / No Distress score – Weinberger Short Scale Number of events rated as major Number of schools If a student answers No to the Feel Good question – they are required to provide comment. System records this. Distress score is created by using the Weinberger Short Scale – produces a figure from 0 – 60. Any score in excess of 40 indicates distress .Number of events the student reveals as having an effect on them. Number of schools picks up transience – normal to have three schools in NZ – Primary, Intermediate [ Middle School ] Secondary Other reports generated by the system include Ethnicity, Not feeling good comments, gender and global data. Individual student questionnaires provided for whole cohort

Global Data

Ranking Student’s name System classifies students into one of four risk groups. High, Med, Low. Not ranked. Travellers candidates are most likely to be in the medium group. High group will contain students the school already knows about and the Counsellors are most likely working with these students on a one to one basis. The questionnaire can also reveal students in the High risk group that the school didn’t know about. This allows action to be taken to deal with theses students issues. The Not Ranked group are the students who fall between the low risk and medium group. Their data is provided so that Counsellors can assess whether they would benefit from the Travellers Programme. Student’s name

Selection Students interviewed and their permission sought Programme runs for 8 weeks during school time 8 – 10 students per group 90 mins per session Facilitated by 2 trained school staff Approach: School identifies likely candidates for a Travellers programme from the student data. Programme normalises the ups and downs in life. Provides students with strategies to cope when this occurs.

Session Outline Session One & Two: Session Three: Life is a journey. Sometimes the path can be more challenging than at other time Session Three: Our self-esteem is our belief in our own self-worth Session Four: Trust your feelings – it's OK to feel. Expressing yourself is healthy. It's natural to find change stressful

Session Outline Session Five: The way I think affects how I feel. I can’t always change things, but I can change the way I think about things. Session Six: Fun and laughter help reduce stress. Relaxation re-energises. Session Seven: Everyone needs support at times. It can be practical and/or emotional. Session Eight: Challenges in life can help us grow. There are strategies I can use to do life.

The Programme Contains all the resources to run the programme Involves story telling/ making meaning from stories. Strong oral rather than written component Mix of games/group discussion/individual reflection Takes a learning styles approach so that all students are catered for Facilitator manual provides guided approach for facilitators

Impact of the Travellers Programme

“Travellers helped me deal with feelings and understand what they meant. It’s OK to feel and everybody does.”

"You feel special and involved, with a sense of wanting, like you're wanted somewhere. I am normally left out of things. I feel happy to be involved in something. It makes me feel good. They let me be myself and don’t tell me off for it."

"It helped me open up and face my problems, which is good for me "It helped me open up and face my problems, which is good for me. You gave me hope and I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart." “Alex” story if time allows

Facilitator comment “A very overweight year 9 student chose to join the Travellers group 5 years ago. During the programme she chose to go to the counsellor for personal counselling. She told the counsellor that the group experience after 4 sessions gave her the courage to talk to the counsellor about sexual abuse that had happened for many years. The counsellor supported the student for 3 years with life issues and assisted in the abuse stopping.” McAuley High School “I find it very useful as a counsellor and facilitator in that if I have ex-Travellers kids as clients, it is very easy to do CBT with them as there are so many CBT related activities there.” Papatoetoe High School McAuley High= Joan Fogarty, Papatoetoe High = Lynn Papp

Overall Impact Increases mental health / emotional literacy of students who participate in the programme Allows group counselling – hopefully reducing the workload of busy counsellors Schools are approaching Skylight to pick up the programme Schools report greater student connectedness and access to school health / guidance networks

Current Situation in NZ Running in 95 schools throughout NZ Schools see Travellers as: Providing valuable data on school culture Assisting young people to be more resilient Assisting young people to have greater emotional literacy Assisting young peoples’ mental well being

Transportability Programme crosses socio – economic boundaries and cultures Programme able to be adapted for other cultures / countries Adapted for use in Denmark / Australia

Contact Bice Awan Skylight Chief Executive Ph: +644 939-6759 ce@skylight-trust.org.nz Aileen Davidson Skylight National Travellers Coordinator Ph: +644 939-8576 travellers@skylight-trust.org.nz www.skylight.org.nz www.travellers.org.nz