1. Building Resilience What is it and what builds it
Ed Sipler
South Eastern Trust
February, 2104
Title

2. A way of working together…
What ground rules can we agree on?
What ground rules can we agree on?

3. Why is resilience and mental health important?
Mental health is the emotional and spiritual resilience which enables us to enjoy life and to survive pain, disappointments and sadness. It is a positive sense of well being and an underlying belief in our own and others dignity and worth.
NI Promoting Mental Health Strategy
There is no health without mental health
By 2020 mental disorders are expected to be second only to heart disease as a leading source of disease.

4. What do you think resilience means?
The word “resilience” is derived from the Latin verb “salire,” which means to jump. The prefix “re-“ means “back” or “again.” Thus, “resilience” is literally about jumping back.
Title

5. RESILIENCE is…
The capacity for healthy development and successful learning in spite of challenges.”
( B Benard )
Resilience is the capacity to spring back, rebound, successfully adapt in the face of adversity and develop social, academic, and vocational competence despite being exposed to extreme stress or simply to the stress that is inherent in today’s world. (Henderson and Milstein, 1996)

6. The challenge of promoting resilience
While our understanding of processes that promote resilience is extensive, we need a better range of practical applications.
A ray of hope
One of the most important thing things that came out of the years of research is that “there is no age that has a monopoly on risks and no age beyond which it is too late to intervene”. (Rutter 2000)

7. Are we born with resilience or is it shaped?
Risk factors are cumulative
Transition points are both threats and opportunities
Acute stresses are usually less harmful than chronic ones
Building our strengths or assets

8. How resilient are you?

9. Road to resilience… Models of building resiliency
The Road to Resilience
What we do does matter. Resilience can be built We just need to know how 9

10. Factors that build resilience
Adopted from Resiliency in Schools Making it happen for Students and Educators, Henderson and Milstein 1996
Opportunities
For Meaningful
Participation
Positive
Relationships
& Bonding
Set and
Communicate
High
Expectations
Set Clear,
Consistent
Boundaries
Provide
Care
And
Support
Adapted from ‘Resiliency in schools: Making it Happen for Students and Educators’ by Nan Henderson and Mike Milstein (1996)
Henderson and Milstein have looked at developing resiliency in schools. We have spent time in schools looking at developing the School Ethos. This is a different lens to look at schools ethos. If you are going to help pupils develop resilience you need these six key building blocks:-
Providing care and support
Set and communicate High expectations
Opportunities for meaningful participation
Positive relationships and bonding
Set clear and consistent boundaries
Teach Life Skills
Exercise as Individuals
Give out Word handout on ‘How Resilient is your school?’
They can mark two numbers per area, one for the whole school and one for their classroom (suggest different coloured pens, or circle and square the issues).
Discussion in Pairs
Have a short discussion in pairs about your assessment.
Teach
Life-Skills 10

11. The 7 C’S Kenneth Ginsburg
Competence
Confidence
Connection
Character
Contribution
Coping
Control

13. Building blocks of resilience I have, I am , I can
Supports and supportive people around each individual to promote resilience
Inner strengths of confidence, self-esteem, and responsibility
Use and develop skills/make use of support
Grotberg, E. (1997) ‘The international resilience project’.

14. Strengths related to resilience
Being in charge of our emotions
Create thinking time
Analyzing the cause of problems
Maintaining realistic optimism
Having empathy for others
Believing in our own competence
Reaching out
Karen Reivich and Andrew Shatte (2003)The Resilience Factor

15. Which do you like best?

16. Building resilience thinking Self Calming Deep core beliefs
Building skills that build resilience- Low Intensity CBT Tools: Build on skills found in INSYNC
Building resilience thinking
Self Calming
Deep core beliefs
Self care- Feeling positive in the midst of stress
Using support
Principles of coping
Action plan 16

17. What do you think of this statement?
We can’t control everything that happens to us.
What we can control is how we how we react.

18. How our thinking manages our emotions
Feelings
Thinking
Calm times
Strong emotions

19. Our Thinking Affects What We Feel and Do
Something happens. We think about it. We respond.
Events Thoughts Response
To help us, let’s think of it as learning our ABC’S:
(A) Something bad happens (Adversity)
(B) We have certain thoughts (Beliefs)
(C) Feelings/behaviour follow (Consequences )

20. What influences our thinking?
Unhelpful thinking habits that are automatic
Core beliefs about ourselves and the world.
(Rules, demands, assumptions)
Emotional and physical well being
Style of explaining things 20 20

21. How can we deal with stress. It is more than just “think positive”
How can we deal with stress? It is more than just “think positive”. It is about recognizing our feelings and developing “good thinking skills”

22. Why the ABC’s are so important: The B/C connections
Thoughts Feelings
Feeling attacked, our rights violated… Anger
Loss or loss of self worth ……… Sadness
Future threat …………………… Fear. Anxiety
Comparing yourself others neg Embarrassment
Hurting someone else…………… Guilt
The beliefs (our thinking) matter because they will shape the intensity of our feelings and what we do. When we are more resilient we are not saying we don’t have strong feelings… We are able to regulate and control them to respond to situations in ways that work better for us.

23. Ten Common Unhelpful Thinking Habits
All or nothing thinking Jumping to conclusions Overgeneralising Making a mountain out of a mole hill Emotional reasoning Should Statements Taking things personally Wishful thinking Mental filter Discounting the positive
Have we learned to view life and every day situations with negative goggles on?

24. The change skills Catching that unhelpful, initial reaction
Putting on the brakes. Stopping that chain of unhelpful self talk
Create thinking time. Examine what is really going on
Being flexible and creative in your thinking. Challenging negative thinking Substitute more reasonable thinking 24

25. Looking After Yourself So what is stress?
Stress is the perception that something is more of a problem than the resources you have for coping with it. Stress puts your well being at risk. 25 25

26. Using positive emotions in the midst of stress
1. Notice positive things
2. Express these positive things
3. Gratitude
4. Mindfulness
5. Positive rethinking
6. Focus on your strengths
7. Attainable goals
8. Acts of kindness 26 26

27. I would like to share a poem to finish today with: Attitude
Found in the Bouncing Back workbook on page 14

28. Our other work
Self help materials for adults and young people affected by substance misuse in the family
Self help material to help people look at their drinking or drug use
Self help material to help people change behaviour
All these resources can be found on the South Eastern Trust web site the under healthy living tab 28

29. Thanks for having me here today
“Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape.”
Dr. Michael McGriffy 29 29