BOUNCING BACK! BUILDING RESILIENCE IN YOUNG PEOPLE

Who am I? Off The Record, Bristol is 50 years old Mental health is the working order of our thoughts, feeling and behaviours and these interact within the word around us. All young people has mental health needs not all young people have mental health problems.

WHAT IS RESILIENCE? ‘The qualities which can help a child or young person cope with, manage, survive and even thrive in the face of great hurt or disadvantage’ (Gilligan, 2001) ‘Real resilience is when people with persistently few assets and resources and major vulnerabilities have better outcomes than we might expect given their circumstances, and in comparison with what we know happens with other children in their contexts’ (Hart et al, 2007)

WHY BUILD RESILIENCE? It’s normal to go through ups and downs in life – to face adversity - Resilience is a key LIFE SKILL Long term exposure to adversity leads to young people being at risk of developing mental health problems - Building resilience is PREVENTATIVE (like taking vitamins or going to the gym!) On a pessimistic note – with cuts to resources and access to services it makes sense to build young people’s capacity before they encounter real difficulties

SELLING IT TO A YOUNG PERSON Makes us better able to deal with life’s problems Makes us stronger Helps us manage during tough times

GOOD NEWS!!! Resilience is totally learnable!!

HOW DO YOU DO IT? Werner and colleagues decided on a set of PROTECTIVE FACTORS that support resilience. Emotional support outside the family Reasoning Ability (being able to problem solve) Autonomy (being able to accomplish tasks alone) Inner direction (believing that you can shape your own future) Seizing opportunities Sociability (reaching out to meet people/being able to get people’s attention)

THE LEARNABLE SKILLS OF RESILIENCE Emotion Awareness Impulse Control Optimism Causal Analysis (Flexible and Accurate thinking) Empathy Self-efficacy Reaching out Karen Reivich and Andrew Shatte, The Resilience Factor, 2003.

BUILDING STRENGTHS HELPS YPS TO: recognise that they have the ability to change their life for the better recognise, value and use their strengths to bring about the changes they want take control of the process of change

SUPERME!! S – Strategies S – Strengths R – Resources I – Insights

RESILIENT CONVERSATIONS Strategies – ‘What did you do, that helped you cope?’ NB: People often identify stuff that they’re not happy they did to cope to begin with, like drinking etc – that’s okay! You can learn from this…what might you do differently next time? Strengths – ‘When you look back on the situation what positive qualities or strengths do you think you used to get through it?’ Resources – ‘Were there any useful people/places/’thing’s you used to help you?’ Insight – ‘Are there any wisdom or insights you have now when you look back on this that you could tell yourself again?’ ‘If you met someone else who was now going through the same thing, what advice would you give them?’

More information at Look at for the Resilience lab banner