Samantha Chapman Hello, I’m Sam Chapman.  I’m a Registered Mental Health Nurse and   Specialist Practitioner in Mental Health. I’ve got  a Master’s in Public Health and Health Promotion,   and I’m currently doing my doctoral research,  exploring how schools can help children to have   good mental health. For that research, I really  wanted to find out more about what exactly is good   mental health? What does that look like in a child  or a young person? And how can we promote it more,   so that children can grow and develop  good mental health within themselves? And this presentation is going to be talking you  through some of the things that I found around   what exactly is good mental health? What does  that look like, and how it can be promoted? So,   I’ll discuss those elements with you, but,  initially, I will just give a little bit of   information, just around the difference  between good mental health and mental   illness, for the purpose of understanding  where this presentation is coming from. So, what does good mental health look like?  So, for this presentation, good mental   health involves, kind of, the whole spectrum of  mental health. So, if we see this diagram here,   and all of the purple area is representing  mental health. Most of it is good mental health,   and some days we have really good mental health,  and some days we will have maybe, kind of,   mental health that isn’t as good, but we wouldn’t  consider ourself to be unwell. And, mostly,   when we talk about good mental health, it’s all  of this area here that you can see highlighted. The information that I’m going to share  with you today about what exactly does   good mental health look like sits within that  area, highlighted “good mental health.” But   when I’m talking about “promoting good mental  health,” I’m talking about that for everybody,   including people who perhaps have poor mental  health at the moment. So, thinking about,   how do we move those people from a position of  having poor mental health to giving them the   things that they need, the knowledge, the skills,  to move them into having good mental health? So, the next few slides that I’m  going to show you are talking about,   what exactly is good mental health, and what  does that look like? So, we’re thinking about   what are the characteristics that we would  see in somebody who has good mental health?   And this information that I’m presenting has come  from my research, from some work I’ve done that’s   looking at academic literature that talks about  “good mental health in children and young people.” So, one of the first important elements that  somebody will demonstrate when they have good   mental health is social connectedness.  They’ll have a sense of belonging,   they’ll have good friendships, and they’ll  have a sense of right or wrong. So, this   sense of belonging is really important,  it’s finding their place in society,   finding their place in their life. So, I know I  belong at home, I know I belong at work, I know   I’ve got good relationships in the area that I  live in, that I belong in these different areas. The next thing that would  be demonstrated in somebody   who has good mental health is them  engaging in positive coping skills.   So, there’s lots of different ways  in which a young person can, kind of,   work with the challenges that life faces and the  difficulties that they have. It’s thinking about   them having those skills, so that when they’re in  those situations, they know what skills they can   use to help them through those difficult times.  So, it’s essentially having the skills to cope,   and we call this “self-regulating,” what do I  need to do to, kind of, look after my health,   to manage my emotions that might be coming up  during these difficult times? And emotions are   normal, we feel different emotions in different  situations, so it’s about how do we manage those   and, kind of, either work through them, or do  things to help ease the discomfort of them. The next thing is engaging in health promoting  ways of being, so physical activity, eating good   food, good sleep, talking about our feelings,  and having opportunities for different growth.   The next thing is that young people with  good mental health demonstrate having hope,   there’s something to work towards, they know  there’s something good waiting for them,   that there’s positive things in their future. The  next thing is a – what we’re calling a “developed   formation of self,” so this is about the young  person knowing who they are, that they’ve got,   “This is who I am, these are my interests,  this is where I’m sharing my interests,   or working on my interests, I’m developing  who I am, my own personal identity.” And when   we do that, that increases our self-esteem, our  self-awareness, and our self-confidence, ‘cause   we’re doing the things that make us feel like us.  They make us feel like, this is important to me. The next thing is autonomy and agency. So, people  with good mental health demonstrate an ability to   have control over themselves, control over  their life, control over the decisions that   they make. And I know with children and young  people, this is a little bit more difficult,   because as adults we do put in measures to some  degree of control, because we need to protect   children and keep them safe. But in this – in  my research, it’s shown that perhaps we need   to let go and give a bit more freedom to some  of the rules that perhaps aren’t essential,   and really just maintaining those essential  ones, so children have got a bit more choice   and a bit more freedom about their own  life and their everyday way of being. The next one is having good interpersonal  skills, so a child that has good mental   health has good communication skills. They  feel they can express themselves clearly,   and that they will be listened to, and  they’re also able to reflect on situations,   and think about what works, what doesn’t  work, and what they would benefit from. So, how do we get a young person  to the point where they’ve got all   of these skills? What are the things  that promote these characteristics?   So, the next few slides that I’m going to show  you come from the work that I’ve been doing,   and they give us some ideas about how we can  integrate some different things into the world,   the life, of the child or the young person, that  will enable them to develop good mental health. So, drawing on some of the things we’ve spoken  about, hobbies and interests and having those   social connections and social relationships are  really important. Relationships from Teacher to   the child at school, relationships from parents  and other adults to the child, and relationships   with their peer group, and really building  up a peer group around hobbies and interests,   so they’re around likeminded people, in  environments where they feel comfortable. And   children are telling me they just want to know  that people like them. They just want to know   that they’re liked and that they feel valued  by other people and that they’re important. The next slide is about having a secure and  safe base, so to have good mental health,   children need to have a secure home, a secure  and safe area in school, and have security within   their relationships, and having a safe and secure  base in other areas that children might go to. The next thing that we can do is around  creative play, stories, reading books together,   and having pets. This came out of the research  that I’ve done, and I’ve grouped these together,   because interestingly, my research was in a  secondary school, and I think when I was talking   to people they were saying, “By the time they get  to secondary school children aren’t interested in   these things,” but, actually, it’s so important  that we do this with children across all ages,   that they have these opportunities for creative  play, whatever that looks like. It might be   going to a skate park with somebody who likes  skateboarding, or it might be sitting reading   a book out loud together and sharing that  experience. And pets are also really useful   developing that sense of security and secure  base and those relationships, even with animals. The next one is having opportunities to actually  develop good mental health, so opportunities for –   to grow their self-esteem, opportunities that will  help them develop who they are, opportunities for   having rest and good sleep, and opportunities for  doing things that promote their sense of feeling   good. What makes them feel good? What do they  enjoy doing? And opportunities to do those things. The next thing is, as we’ve already mentioned  really, is about increasing control and choice   that children have, so thinking about how  we can integrate that in everydayness. So,   how can we give children more opportunities  to feel like they’re having a choice and are   making decisions in their own life? It can  be something simple like children choosing,   you know, maybe what they want for tea one night  a week, or laying the food out on the table so   they can self-serve themselves, rather than  having food plated up, choosing the type of   clothes that they want to wear or the hairstyle  that they have, all of those things can really   add to a child feeling they have control over  who they are as individual people themselves. The next thing is about adult and child  relationship, that that’s a respectful   and mutually reciprocal relationship.  That adults don’t promote vulnerability   in children and that children feel  safe with adults and well-respected,   and that adults are in tune to recognising that  children need freedom and choice, but they also   need to be – kept feeling safe and secure, as  well. And so it’s having a balanced environment   of being protective in the right areas, but not so  protective that it takes away children’s sense of   freedom and, like, they have space to grow and  evolve into the people that they want to be. And then the last one is about access to  information and support. So, this really   for me, it talks largely about access to  mental health services, or services that   promote children to develop an understanding  of their own mental health and wellbeing. And   we know that mental health services at the moment  are really struggling with capacity, and so it’s   thinking about how can we support children  to get that information in alternative ways? And so, I’ve put a photograph here, an image of  a woman doing yoga, and that’s just to remind me,   I guess, to give you the example that that  information can come from different areas, like,   you know, going to somewhere like a sports  club, or going to play football on a weekend,   if that’s something that helps children  to feel good and healthy, it’s about we   can say to children, “Out of ten, ten being  you feel great, and one is you feel terrible,   how good do you feel when you play football?  Like, how much do you love it?” And if they say,   “I feel nine,” or, “ten,” then we know  that this is something we can encourage   them to do. I use the out of ten analogy a lot  with my own children, so saying to children,   “This – we can see that this helps you feel  good, so more of this is really useful.”  You can also use the out of ten when children  don’t want to do something, so, “I really don’t   want to go swimming tonight,” “I really don’t  want to go to Scouts,” “I really don’t want to   go to” whatever it is your child – you’re doing  with your child. And if you ask them before out   of ten, “How much do you want to do this?”  And they say, “I’m a one,” or, “a two,” or,   “a minus a million,” and then ask them afterwards,  “How do you feel?” They might say, “Actually,   I feel an eight out of ten,” and that can help  give them the information that before you didn’t   feel great, but afterwards you’re feeling a  bit better, and it’s important to make that   distinction. I’m not going to say it works all the  time, but it can be a really useful tool to have. Thank you for listening. I  hope that’s been helpful.