School Counselling: Collaboratively Responding to adolescent fallout from complex family...
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Transcript of School Counselling: Collaboratively Responding to adolescent fallout from complex family...
Collaboratively Responding to Adolescent Fallout from Complex
Family Relationship Issues
CatholicCare WollongongSchool, Student & Family
Program
Family Relationships is the number one presenting
issue in school counselling.
True or False
Quiz
1 in 3 young people live in a household experiencing
financial stress.
True or False
Quiz
The average teenager spends the equivalent of 1
school day online.
True or False
Quiz
Adolescents today are having their first drink at
a younger age.
True or False
Quiz
Adolescents today are having their first drink at a
younger age.
True or False
The age at which 14-24 year olds first tried alcohol increased since 1998 from 14.4 to 15.7 years in 2013.
Quiz
1 Australian teen dies each month from alcohol
related causes.
True or False
Quiz
Parents are spending 4 hours a week less with their children than they did a generation ago.
True or False
Quiz
The majority of students accessing counselling in high school are female
True or False
Quiz
Adolescents prefer online counselling over face-to-
face counselling. True or False
Quiz
Most students prefer a female counsellor.
True or False
Quiz
Most students prefer a female counsellor.
True or False
Boys: 24% prefer a female, 15% prefer a male counsellor, 68% don’t mind.
Girls: 67% prefer a female, 3% prefer a male, 30% don’t mind.
Quiz
Students are more reluctant for their parents to know that they are in
counselling than for their peers to know.True or False
Quiz
• Financial pressures• Time poor• Technology & social media• Family breakdown• Family violence• Substance use
Family Context & Impact on Adolescents
Mental Health Issues• 14% of Australian children and
adolescents aged 14-17 have mental health or behavioural problems
• Only 1 in 4 young people with mental health problems receive professional help
• How can we be more innovative, creative and proactive in reaching the most vulnerable?
Family Context & Impact on Adolescents
• Family and school connectedness is a protective factor
• Identify the reasons for school disengagement
• Early intervention is key
• Listen rather than lecture
• Student-centred approach
School Connectedness
• ‘What is spoken in the counselling appointment should be kept confidential, this is one of the main things that I would worry about if I were to see a counsellor’.
• ‘The counsellor is seen as a last resort. I would promote it a bit more. If that image was to change it would help the school community’.
• ‘Walking into the office and having people see you can be embarrassing even though it’s nothing to be embarrassed about’.
• ‘Encourage students to encourage each other to see a counsellor if they need to and education that mental illness should not be something to be ashamed of’.
Help Seeking
• We haven’t seen an increase in help-seeking behaviour
• Strong preference for informal supports
• Barriers: • Stigma• Confidentiality• Accessibility• Solve their own problems
• As distress increases help-seeking decreases
Help Seeking
How can we promote help seeking in adolescents?• Sensitivity in sharing information• Psychoeducation for adolescents (friends
helping friends)• Embracing technology, online support &
appsHow can we promote help seeking in families?• Outreach to families• Consider cost & transport
Help Seeking
• No one service can meet the needs of a family with complex needs
• Enormous potential for greater collaboration between schools and family and relationship service providers
• Who can you partner with?
Collaboration
Collaboration
Improved Family
Functioning
Improved Community Wellbeing
Improved Adult
Functioning
Improved Sense of Hope and Dignity
Improved Child Health
and Wellbeing
Physical Health Parental EngagementLearning Mental HealthCommunity Safety Sense of Family & Community Social and Emotional Wellbeing BelongingEmotional Security Access to ServicesPositive Parenting Styles Early InterventionEssential Life Skills ResilienceParticipation Goal Attainment
• Adolescents and their parents face significant challenges in 2015 and into the future
• Families are not well-equipped to deal with these complex issues especially vulnerable families
• We need to equip families to know when and how to seek help
• There is enormous potential for increased collaboration between DSS funded family and community programs and schools
• How can we improve connectedness, encourage help seeking and engage our most vulnerable youth and families?
In conclusion...