Ashlee Harrison, the CEO of the charity ‘zero2hero’ and Director of ‘Social Say’ spoke to parents last Thursday about the importance of building resilience in children and adults. She shared some scary facts with us:

• 1 in 4 people experience a mental health condition (1 in 6 have depression)
• 47% of Australians experience mental illness at some stage
• 75% of mental illness is formed before the age of 25 (3 in 4)
• Suicide is the biggest killer of our young people (almost 3 times the national roll) - 7 a day die

Ashlee explained that children’s biggest concerns were coping with stress; school and study problems; and body image (Mission Australia, 2017).
Ashlee talked about the importance of challenge in our lives. She gave two great examples, the first being how pressure over time enables coal to change to a crystal/diamond. Ashlee also discussed the lifecycle of a butterfly and the need for the butterfly to struggle out of the cocoon. She explained that this process ensured that butterflies developed the strength to survive and that if we were to break open the cocoon to make it easier for the butterflies to get out, they would die shortly afterwards as they wouldn’t have the strength to survive.


Our children also need to experience challenges in their lifetime. As parents, it is important for us to support our children, but we should not solve these problems for them. They will not develop the strength to deal with the issues that come their way throughout their lifetimes if we solve all of their problems for them.


Ashlee suggested some strategies that will help in improving mental health and the importance of:
• talking and listening
• how food contributes to our physical and mental wellbeing 
• gratitude and mindfulness
• physical activity
• sleep
• disconnecting to connect
• laughter


Ashlee spoke about Gary Chapman’s love languages and how children (and adults) have their love languages. These are: quality time, physical touch, words of affirmation, gifts and acts of service.

Coincidentally our next Connect, Learn, Engage seminar on Tuesday, 16th October (Week 2, Term 4) will be presented by AnglicareWA on The Love Languages of Children. 
The following websites are useful for more information on mental health:
www.headspace.org.au
https://youthfocus.com.au/
https://kidshelpline.com.au/ 
https://www.lifeline.org.au/
https://wstephaniww.eheadspace...
https://www.beyondblue.org.au/

Written by Nicole Brown, Deputy Associate Principal – Primary School