SOS+-+Stressed+Out,+Seriously!

=__// ​ ​ Youth suicide and self harm//__ = =by Joanne Pereira = =SOS, Stressed Out, Seriously! = = // __Introduction__ //= Stress, anxiety and Mental health issues can lead a young person to believe their situation is hopeless and out of their control. Sometimes their feelings lead to self harm, suicide or risky behaviour. Young people are often unaware of the wide range of resources that are available to them at any time. Some resources can be accessed via the internet, phone, visiting local agencies or by talking to the school counsellor. Sometimes the reason youth don’t ask for help is because of fear and the stigma that may be associated with mental health issues- such as depression, self harm or suicide.

Some statistical evidence states that the rates of youth committing suicide are decreasing. In 2007 1.4% of all registered deaths were attributed to suicide.

During the 1980s the suicide rates for 15 – 19 year old males peaked at 21.0 per 100 000 and in 1997 started dropping to18 .6 per 100 000. By 2007 the rate was down to 9.3 per 100 000, a significant reduction.

For 15 – 19 year old females the suicide rate has been constant with 3 – 5 suicide deaths per 100 000 in the 1980s, to 5.3 in 1997 to 3.9 per 100 000 of 15 – 19 year old females in 2007.

There are many reasons why a youth may commit suicide or self harm, a lot of the time it relates to feelings of hopelessness, lack of self worth, not having the emotional tools to work through these feelings, or not knowing who to turn to for help.

Self harm can sometimes be seen by youth as a way of coping with difficult and painful emotions or distressing personal experiences. Many youth who self harm don’t have suicide ideation, often self harm is used as a way to relieve emotional pain when the youth believe they don’t have any where to get help, or don’t know of any other resources.

Prevention and education are the keys to assisting youth through difficult times and can give youth the tools to deal with life’s challenges and stressful situations. A better educated society, better known resources and more professional help for families when needed has started to reduce the statistics of youth suicide.

=// __Consultation Process__ //= I contacted Dripstone Middle School and spoke to the principal about having an event that introduced information about stress and what to do if a student was suffering from stress or mental health issues like depression, suicide or self harm. Also to introduce a few activities and information that can help to manage stress.

The principal was supportive of the idea and agreed to meet with the student council and myself so I could present it to them. The principal wanted me to focus on stress reduction and to only mention suicide and self harm in a general way, she was concerned that it may be too negative a topic. I agreed to this as I believe information and having access to good resources would provide support to those students who may have these thoughts. I met with the student council and explained my idea for an afternoon of fun activities that can help reduce stress as well as providing the students with a resource booklet that provides useful contacts and organizations to access if they or a friend was feeling overwhelmed, depressed or not coping. I explained that the booklet would have listings of organizations, information and activities that could help the students learn new ways of coping with stress or depression and how to contact organisations for help if they needed it. The booklet would also have information about what to do if they or a friend felt depressed, had thoughts of suicide or were self harming as well as a list of professional services that can help such as websites like Reachout, Kids helpline and so on.

After meeting with the student council, principal and student counsellor it was agreed that the program would be most beneficial to the year 9 students as this was the age where stress and mental health issues can start appearing and having an effect on a young person. I met with the year 9 teachers and asked for their support of the event, after answering their questions the teachers asked for 2 students from each class to volunteer for a student work group. The year 9 students created a work group of 6 students 2 from each class. It was decided that the work group would meet once a week in the school library during lunch. I met with the student workgroup and explained my idea and asked them what kind of event did they want to have and one of the first suggestions from the work group was to put together a questionnaire to ask their classmates on how they coped with stress.

YEAR 9 STRESS QUESTIONNAIRE

 * 1) What do you do when you feel stressed or down?
 * 2) Can you name any organizations; places or websites where you could get help if you’re feeling stressed, depressed or have a problem?
 * 3) What would you do if a friend told you they were depressed, stressed or thinking of harming themselves?

The questionnaire was handed out to year 9 students in home class by the student workgroup representatives and collected at the end of class. The results were then collated in the next workgroup meeting and prepared to add to the booklet.

**The top ten ways of coping with stress were:**
The student work group met once a week for two weeks and I went to the third meeting to facilitate the suggestions made for activities and to present my contribution to the booklet. My role in the event was to gather a list of organizations and resources of where to get help. I then helped the students to collate and present the information in the booklet. I was also to help the students to get organizations to volunteer their time and skills to be involved in the program and to help put the booklet together.
 * 1) Exercise, proven to benefit people’s mental and physical health.
 * 2) Don’t use alcohol or drugs to cope with stress they don’t help to manage your feelings and can add to the stress of what you’re going through.
 * 3) Having a pet can help to reduce your stress levels, go play with them and enjoy their unconditional love.
 * 4) Relaxation techniques like yoga, listening to chill music or breathing exercises are great ways of reducing stress.
 * 5) Eat a balanced diet of fruit and vegetables.
 * 6) Make sure you have some “me time” every day, use this time to pursue your hobbies or just relax.
 * 7) You will be less stressed if you are working in a peaceful space because it creates a peaceful atmosphere where you will feel at ease. So make sure you keep things organised and as an added bonus your mum will stop nagging you.
 * 8) Get some sunshine. It is beneficial and makes you feel good.
 * 9) Have a deep and meaningful conversation with your family or friend. Expressing your thoughts will make you feel better and will give the person listening to you a better understanding of what’s going on for you.
 * 10) Sometimes it can all seem too much, this is when professionals can help. There are many services offered to youth, you only need to reach out and ask for help.

=// __Networking__ //= Present at the third meeting was myself, the school counsellor and the student workgroup. The principal asked to have the event in the second to last week of school, as this wouldn’t interfere with the regular school day. The event would be held in the Dripstone Middle school gym and on the oval.

The event activities were discussed and decided on, it was to be a come and try something new event. The student group decided to contact PCYC to see if they would come on the day to run a boxercise class tryout. A student delegate agreed to contact the Yoga space and invite them to participate and hold a yoga and meditation class and to ask Tanner Tang Soo Do or Austin Martial Arts to be involved and do a demonstration and hold an introductory class.

At the 4th meeting which was attended by me, the principal and the student work group it was confirmed which organizations were willing to volunteer their time for the event. The students had positive results to report; PCYC would come and run 3 x 30 min introductory boxercise class for year 9 students. Yoga space also agreed to run 3 x 30 min yoga/meditation class. Austin Martial Arts agreed to participate and run 3 x 30 min introductory class. The tryout classes were to be held concurrently with each group moving through the roster. One of the students suggested to make icy cups to share after the event and the student workgroup agreed unanimously. Students in each class were to make enough for their class and the cordial and plastic cups would be donated by the school canteen.

I then suggested to the students that we ask headspace to come in and give a 15 min talk on what young people can do to reduce stress. The students agreed to this and thought it was a good idea. The students also went onto the web site addresses I provided and checked them out and came up with a few more to add to the list. They then gave the web sites a score out of 10 as being helpful or not, 1 being good and 10 average. the students liked the websites where they could talk to other youth about issues or read their stories. =// __Event__ //= At the 5th meeting we planned the event and activities. The Booklet listing the websites, the Top Ten List and the organisations contact details and addresses was edited and made ready for printing out. The principal arranged for the school secretary to photocopy and collate the Booklet with the help of two students from the work group ready for the event.

The event was to start at 10.30 am and first up the year 9 were to assemble in the gym. The P.A. was to be set up by the Tech class and the booklet would be handed out. First a student from the work group would introduce the event an**d** then report on the results of the questionnaire and go through the top ten stress busters. Then a person from Headspace would give a 20 min talk on what services they provide and some of the ways youth can reduce stress and how they can get help.

The first set of activities will begin at 11.20 on a rotating basis, where each class will participate in an activity and then move on to the next. Each activity will go for 30 mins and the classes will work through each class simultaneously. Stop for lunch at 12.00 return from lunch at 1.00pm to continue with activities. The school will provide the activity instructors with lunch Activities will continue after lunch and finish by2.30 pm.

The final activity for the day is Water bomb blitz. Water Bomb Blitz Rules Has two teams with even numbers, (the year 9 students who want to participate are to sign up the week before and to bring clothes that are suitable ie board shorts and bather top). The teams are to pick one member of the team to protect from the water balloons. The object of the game is to blitz the ‘chosen one’ of the opposite team as best they can, while protecting their own ‘chosen one’. Each team has a number of balloons to use – 3 per person, when the balloons are gone game over. The team with the driest ‘chosen one’ wins the game.

Icy cups to be made and shared on the day,. The icy cups are to be made in the school canteen freezer and given out after Water Bomb Blitz.

The resources needed for this event are: We had a final meeting on the Monday before the event and went over the checklist of things that were done, all volunteers were confirmed and thanks to working with a dedicated bunch of students we were right on track for a great event on that Thursday. =// __Feedback/Evaluation__ //= A simple feedback form of questions to ask students who participated in the event is as follows: The students who participated on the day filled in the feedback forms the following day and some of the feedback suggested that the event should happen every year and go out to other schools. A lot of the students said it gave them ideas on what to do if they were stressed and places to go to get help if they or their friends were having trouble. Some of the students (33) said that they were going to continue on with some of the activities they tried. 11 students said they were going to continue with Austin Martial Arts doing Tai Chi, 15 students were going to do the boxercise classes at PCYC gym and the others said they were already practising meditation techniques they had learned on the day. There were some students who enjoyed participating but said they weren't really interested in continuing any of the activities but that they would keep the booklet in case they needed it. Generally the feedback from the students was positive and the teachers and school counsellor were pleased with the event. Every one said they liked the water bomb blitz as it was fun and they had a laugh at the students participating while they were trying to protect the "chosen One" !
 * Paper and photocopying of the booklet, questionnaire and feedback forms will have the cost of materials donated by school council
 * Facility – school gym and oval
 * Class teachers to supervise activities
 * Letters explaining event and permission slips for the students to participate to be signed and returned.
 * Insurance – school insurance will cover students and guest activity instructors
 * Icy cup materials to be donated by school canteen
 * 1) Did you find that any of the activities could be useful for coping with stress or depression?
 * 2) Which of the contacts in the booklet would you use if you or a friend felt stressed or had problems?
 * 3) Did you have fun and are you going to continue any of the activities in the booklet or that you participated in on the day?

// References for statistics // Mindframe   www.mindframe-media.info/site/index.cfm?display=105561 Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2009). //Causes of Death, Australia, 2007.// ABS catalogue number 3303.0 RANZCP (2005). //Self-harm. Australian Treatment Guide for Consumers and Carers.// The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists: Melbourne 