Louise Rowling

MindMatters, a Whole-School Approach Promoting Mental Health and Wellbeing:

Objective: MindMatters is an innovative, national mental health promotion program which provides a framework for mental health promotion in Australian schools. Its objectives are to facilitate exemplary practice in the promotion of whole-school approaches to mental health promotion; develop mental health education resources, curriculum and professional development programs which are appropriate to a wide range of schools, students and learning areas; trial guidelines on mental health and suicide prevention and to encourage the development of partnerships between schools, parents, and community support agencies to promote the mental wellbeing of young people. Method: A team of academics and health education professionals, supported by a reference group of mental health experts, developed MindMatters. The program was piloted in 24 secondary schools, drawn from all educational systems and each State and Territory in Australia. The pilot program was amended and prepared for dissemination nationally. Results: The program provides a framework for mental health promotion in widely differing school settings. The teacher professional development dimension of the program is central to enhancing the role of schools in broad population mental health promotion. Conclusions: Promoting the mental health and wellbeing of all young people is a vital part of the core business of teachers by creating a supportive school environment that is conducive to learning. Teachers need to be comfortable and confident in promoting and teaching for mental health. Specific, targeted interventions, provided within a whole-school framework, address the needs of the minority of students who require additional support.

‘You don't have like an identity … you are just lost in a crowd’: Forming a Student Identity in the First-year Transition to University

This article draws on research grounded in a theoretical framework informed by the work of Alfred Schutz and of Berger and Luckmann and explores transition to university as a loss experience. The specific loss examined here is that which results from student identity discontinuity as they undertake the initial transition to university—a transition that the article positions within the political and economic issues shaping the university of the twenty-first century. What causes this initial identity instability is that students have only naïve ‘knowledge about’, rather than contextualised ‘knowledge of’, the new learning context. This means that drawing on knowledge of past learning contexts does not always assist students negotiate new situated learner identities. Rather, identity results from situated interactions in which students pick up cues regarding the horizons of possibility for identity formation in the university transition. It is the nexus of situated interactions with lecturers and other students that is the context and process of identity formation.

Schools as social complex adaptive systems: A new way to understand the challenges of introducing the health promoting schools concept

Achieving system-wide implementation of health promotion programs in schools and sustaining both the program and its health related benefits have proved challenging. This paper reports on a qualitative study examining the implementation of health promoting schools programs in primary schools in Sydney, Australia. It draw upon insights from systems science to examine the relevance and usefulness of the concept of complex adaptive systems as a framework to better understand ways in which health promoting school interventions could be introduced and sustained. The primary data for the study were collected by semi-structured interviews with 26 school principals and teachers. Additional information was extracted from publicly available school management plans and annual reports. We examined the data from these sources to determine whether schools exhibit characteristics of complex adaptive systems. The results confirmed that schools do exhibit most, but not all of the characteristics of social complex adaptive systems, and exhibit significant differences with artificial and natural systems. Understanding schools as social complex adaptive systems may help to explain some of the challenges of introducing and sustaining change in schools. These insights may, in turn, lead us to adopt more sophisticated approaches to the diffusion of new programs in school systems that account for the diverse, complex and context specific nature of individual school systems.

Being in, being out, being with: Affect and the role of the qualitative researcher in loss and grief research

Qualitative methods such as repeated in-depth interviews are frequently used in research on sensitive issues such as HIV/AIDS, loss and grief and child abuse. The research process can be highly emotional, both for the participants and the researcher. While the ethical dilemmas that this poses for participants have been elaborated, little attention has been given to researchers experiences and their needs. Qualitative research on loss and grief in school communities will be used to exemplify the dilemmas encountered by the researcher. These include: the clash of ontological beliefs brought to the research; being a researcher and providing support; the interpersonal context of interviews, with their heightened affective component; and the dilemmas of the researchers role of being in or out of the research. Self-reflexivity was identified as a key skill for researchers in the field of loss and grief. This helped develop awareness of the predicaments. Mechanisms for monitoring and addressing these dilem...

Theoretical and empirical base for implementation components of health-promoting schools

Purpose – Efforts to create a scientific base for the health‐promoting school approach have so far not articulated a clear “Science of Delivery”. There is thus a need for systematic identification of clearly operationalised implementation components. To address a next step in the refinement of the health‐promoting schools work, this paper sets out to delineate implementation components of health‐promoting schools and to identify their mechanisms.Design/methodology/approach – The implementation components were identified through a narrative synthesis of documents describing implementation of health‐promoting school approaches. Studies were included if they were published between 1995 and June 2010 and could be identified in publicly accessible peer‐reviewed articles and grey literature, published in English. Eight sources were extracted, representing reports from all continents with the exception of Africa.Findings – Eight components were identified: preparing and planning for school development; policy a...

Acknowledging Educational Perspectives on Health Promoting Schools.

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to explore educational perspectives towards the concept of health promoting schools and its potential benefits for schools in more depth.Design/methodology/approach – This paper presents the results of a qualitative study based on interviews with school staff including principals, and teachers with responsibility for health promotion from 18 primary schools in Sydney, Australia, examining their understanding of the health promoting schools concept, and their perceptions of its advantages for schools.Findings – The study documents the variety of school staff perceptions. Further examination of the data led to the emergence of four broad categories to accommodate diverse perceptions on health promoting schools. The findings point to several challenges that need to be addressed by advocates of the health promoting schools concept, most notably developing a shared understanding between health and education sectors of the practical elements and potential benefits.Practica...

Filling the black box of implementation for health‐promoting schools

– Achieving organisational learning and greater specificity for implementation action for health‐promoting schools requires detailed understanding of the necessary components. They include: preparing and planning for school development, policy and institutional anchoring, professional development and learning, leadership and management practices, relational and organisational context, student participation, partnerships and networking, and sustainability. This paper seeks to elaborate a theoretically based rationale for how these eight components of implementation that needs to be put into action., – Building on the narrative synthesis in the complementary paper (“Theoretical base for implementation components of health‐promoting schools”, this issue), examples drawn from empirical research and evaluation reports in the field of health‐promoting schools are used to operationalise the function of the components., – This elaboration anchors specific implementation actions within their own theoretical and empirical base, a significant advance on previous guidelines. The eight components have been articulated separately. However, in practice they operate interdependently. Context and culture issues also need to be accommodated., – The level of specificity provided in this paper has the potential to enhance school staff professional learning, as it fulfils one of the characteristics for successful school‐based education, namely practical, detailed implementation and enough flexibility, allowing shaping to suit specific contexts., – The identification of this knowledge base should enable practitioners to develop an in‐depth understanding of the operational functioning of existing guidelines, thereby enhancing their practice. The specificity provided holds promise to enhance the science base and quality of implementation.

Strengthening "School" in School Mental Health Promotion.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to highlight new and existing research on school characteristics that are essential elements in building the capacity of school communities to implement whole school approaches to mental health promotion.Design/methodology/approach – Through an overview of recent research and writing the need for a paradigmatic shift is identified so that educational research and school processes as well as mental health outcomes are utilized as the starting point for school mental health promotion.Findings – Much of the current advocated practice for improved mental health outcomes arises from evidence from health sector interventions, evidence that may not match the breadth and complexity of conditions in schools that need to be considered to bring about change. The practice may also ignore school processes and structures and the research that delineates how these operate. The results of research in Australia identify two key educational areas, leadership and professional learning ...

Promoting the Growth, Improvement and Sustainability of School Mental Health Programs Worldwide

This introductory article reviews the development, vision, principles and aims of the International Alliance for Child and Adolescent Mental Health and Schools (Intercamhs), a network of more than 250 people from 26 countries involved in whole-school mental health promotion. Global issues related to child and adolescent mental health promotion and schools are discussed, including those related to language, collaborative practice and partnerships, involvement of young people and families, and research. An overview of the inaugural meeting of Intercamhs held in Portland, Oregon in October, 2003 is presented, along with reviews of seven additional papers and commentary included in this special issue.

Challenges in the development and monitoring of Health Promoting Schools

Schools are recognised as key settings for health promotion. This has resulted in resources being allocated specifically for the development of Health Promoting Schools. If the existing level of resourcing is to continue, mechanisms for monitoring the effectiveness of Health Promoting Schools need to be designed that are appropriate for the concept. Currently, there is an emphasis on evidence‐based practice, but the difficulty lies in determining what is acceptable as evidence in the context of Health Promoting Schools, and what are the most appropriate methods for collecting this evidence. The disease‐prevention approach, with its emphasis on controlled trials and discrete outcomes is not appropriate. New models must be developed that reflect the multi‐variant and dynamic nature of the processes involved. Outlines principles that could guide this work and includes consideration of the some key health‐promotion principles, including equity, consultation, collaboration, ownership and sustainability, linking these with some newer concepts, such as capacity building and social capital, which are proving useful in the development, monitoring and evaluation of Health Promoting Schools.