Happiness, happiness, the greatest gift a child can possess
Writing in The Scotsman, Lynn Bell from coalition member LOVE learning, highlights the need for increased support to improve the mental health and wellbeing of our children and young people.
With a rise in mental health problems in our children and young people and a lack of services to support them and their families, our child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) are creaking at the seams.
Indeed, the latest figures indicate that more than a third of children and young people are not being seen within the Scottish Government’s 18-week waiting time target from referral to treatment, a target that is in itself far too long.
One key measure to address this escalating mental health issue is a refocusing on prevention and early intervention. If we can prevent such problems arising in the first place it limits a requirement for a referral to highly costly specialist mental health services further down the line.
A key measure of this should be a much greater emphasis on emotional wellbeing within our early years and primary and senior school curriculum, preventing mental health problems arising and through this making our children and young people more resilient. It is however questionable, in my estimation, whether the current curriculum deals with this and prepares our children for the complex modern world that we live in.
No one can take away the need for maths, English or science in the curriculum and there are clear examples of where this is linked in a practical way with budgeting and financial inclusion. However, we need to connect our children practically to the daily problems they face.
There is little use for history if our children don’t know how to use their mind productively or be happy or understand how they learn best or to self-regulate their behaviours and emotions.
We have clearly got considerably better as a society at recognising the need for more creative learning and adapting to requirements for those with additional support needs. The introduction of skills academies and modern apprenticeships for more practical opportunities, for example, is great but what about happiness and emotional resilience?
Our curriculum requires to be more balanced in terms of wellbeing, building up the resilience of our children. We should be teaching our children and their parents about developing a growth mindset, a belief that the individual is in control of their own ability and can learn and improve this.
Our brain is an instrument and teaching our children about positive thought is essential, using self-improvement or holistic approaches like meditation, to ensure they understand themselves and how they learn or improve.
The Dalai Lama said: “When educating the minds of our youth, we must remember to educate their hearts”. Teaching our children to pass a test and memorise subjects is simply not enough. We want self-motivated, independent thinkers who are self- reliant, who grow into emotionally resilient productive citizens.
Happiness classes in primary school and developing an understanding of mental health and delivering a growth mindset in senior years is crucial and will reap dividends.
As an organisation we deliver happiness class training for teachers for free across Scotland as part of our charitable outcomes.
Some other interventions could be:
- The use of community learning development workers for disengaged children. These have experience in mental health, behaviour management and education delivery, adopting a flexible learning approach.
- Educating our new teacher students on the importance of relationships and mental health or Teaching through an ACE’s perspective at college or university.
- Giving teachers flexibility and creativity around non-standardised learning.
I don’t believe this is a utopia but five minutes of meditation in the morning or a half hour happiness class once a week is not unattainable.
Instead of providing counsellors in every school, which I commend Scottish Government for doing, through this approach and building resilience in our children and young people we could greatly reduce the need for them in the first place. This in turn would positively benefit the public purse longer term.
Currently LOVE learning bridges provides support to those with mental health issues through ‘hybrid workers’ but it would greatly benefit our communities and CAHMS if schools were able to build resilience internally and we could close our doors .
Research has shown that good wellbeing on leaving school has a much greater impact on life’s outcomes than exam success. In saying this I am not negating the need for our current curriculum, but school exam results would improve overall if our children’s wellbeing improves.
We need to therefore to teach our children and their families not only about the practical side of life, but the emotional side as well.
Lynn Bell, CEO of LOVE learning, which is a member of the Scottish Children’s Services Coalition. This article first appeared in The Scotsman on 2nd January 2020.
Related Posts
- Coalition urges action as figures highlight a more than 50 per cent drop in legal support for children with complex needs ( December 24, 2020 )
- Concerns raised as a third of pupils identified with additional support needs while support falls ( December 15, 2020 )
- Mental health emergency warning as more than 1,000 children have been waiting more than a year for treatment ( December 1, 2020 )
- World Mental Health Day ( October 10, 2020 )
- Call for a ‘national crusade’ as requests for mental health support slump ( September 4, 2020 )
- Coalition raises major concerns over falling levels of school leavers with additional support needs in positive destinations ( June 16, 2020 )
- Latest waiting time figures highlight perfect COVID-19 storm for children’s mental health ( June 2, 2020 )
- Let’s be mindful of the impact on mental health that crisis will have ( April 17, 2020 )
- Coalition raises concerns over falling support for vulnerable children ( April 8, 2020 )
- Vulnerable youngsters in Scotland hit with postcode lottery of financial support ( March 23, 2020 )
Archives
- December 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- June 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015