Social,+emotional+and+mental+health+for+secondary+schools

‘A Beautiful Mind’ Movie – Kelsey Chandler Howard, R., & Grazer, B. (2001). //A Beautiful Mind [motion picture]//. United States of America: Universal Pictures (United States) ‘A Beautiful Mind’ is a movie resource which can be used to expose students to mental health issues. In this movie the main character, John Nash, struggles with mental health and is eventually institutionalized with schizophrenia. It would be great to show this movie to students to give them an idea of what life can be like for those living with mental illness. This movie could promote interest in learning about mental health issues and skills that people can use to assist those living with such issues, for example, communicating effectively with them.

This movie would be appropriate for secondary school students, particularly students in years 9 and above as students will need comprehensive comprehension skills to understand it well. This movie is accessible through local video stores, online from various websites such as __www.amazon.com__ and even at some local libraries. There are trailers available for this movie on YouTube. The link below connects to one of these trailers. @http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS_d0Ayjw4o

COPMI Website– Kelsey Chandler @http://www.copmi.net.au/ The Children of Parents with a Mental Illness. (2012). //COPMI.// Australia: Australian Government. Retrieved October 6,, 2012, from [] This URL links to the ‘Children of Parents with a Mental Illness’ website which is a site that offers information for parents and families, kids/teens/young adults and professionals about how to support children who have a parent with a mental illness. The information on the website is designed to foster better mental health outcomes for children of parents with mental illness, reduce stigma associated with parental mental illness and help friends, families and workers in a range of settings to identify and respond to the needs of children whose parents have a mental illness. The website gives comprehensive information, tips, facts and real stories which are appropriate to each of the sub-groups listed above. It also has ‘fun stuff’ activities for kids, teens and young adults to participate in. Furthermore, it offers research and lists programs, services and helplines which can be accessible to the public. This resource is not only fantastic for teachers to build their knowledge about supporting students with a mental illness but is also a great way to support the wellbeing of students whose parents have a mental illness. It is a good resource for all students to use and gain information about how mental illness can affect people and a good place for students to learn about the different types of mental illnesses that exist. A teacher could think of ways in which the whole class could use this website for set learning activities or may decide to just refer parents, students, other teachers, etc. to this website so that they are able to look at it in their own time. This website is appropriate for students of all ages (VELS level 1-6 and VCE) it offers easy to read info and supporting pictures as well as more in depth information.

Siblings Australia Inc Website – Kelsey Chandler @http://siblingsaustralia.org.au/ Siblings Australia. (2012). //Our Story.// Australia: Siblings Australia. Retrieved October 6,, 2012, from []  This URL links to the ‘Siblings Australia Inc’ website which is a site that offers services for brothers and sisters of people who have special needs including disability, chronic disease and mental health issues. The website provides research completed by Siblings Australia Inc. about topics such physical harm and models of support as well as references to journal articles that give more information about siblings of people who have special needs. The website has resources that can be bought, as well as a list of books that can be read by siblings to help them understand the mental illness that their brother or sister has. The list of books is broken into the sections of: young sibs, pre-teen sibs, teen-sibs, adult-sibs, parents and workers. This means that there are books to target all age groups and help people foster a better understanding of the mental illness(es) that their brothers or sisters may have. Upon clicking on each book you can be referred to the ‘Fishpond’ website to read a blurb on the book and/or buy it. This resource is a good for teachers to find out information for how to help students within their classes who have brothers or sisters with a mental illness. Some of the research provides effective teaching tips for how to deal with the frustration that these students may demonstrate. This is also a good website for teachers to refer parents to so that they are able to get books to help their children better understand mental illness. It is also good for the teacher to discover these books and perhaps seek to borrow them from the library. These books can assist students of all ages (VELS Levels 1-6 and VCE) in beginning to understand mental illness and can assist them in seeing life from the perspective of those with a mental illness. They are also able to ignite discussion about how people with mental illnesses can be best supported.

Itsallright.org Website – Kelsey Chandler @http://www.itsallright.org/ SANE Australia. (n.d.). //About itsallright.// Australia: SANE Australia. Retrieved October 6,, 2012, from [] This URL links to the ‘itsallright’ website which was created and is managed by SANE Australia (a mental health charity). It is a website where you can read the diaries of four teenagers, based on real stories, as they deal with the challenge of living with mental illness in their family. It also has useful Factsheets and Podcasts and provides online information and referral service on mental illness including schizophrenia, depression and anxiety orders. There are over 40 factsheets for students to get information from.

This resource is appropriate for the personal use of teachers to research specific mental illnesses as well as appropriate for any secondary school students (VELS levels 5 & 6 as well as VCE). Students exposed to this resource will be able to read the diary entries and may be able to relate with these, which would show them that they are not alone in living with mental illness. All students exposed to this resource are able to gain a greater knowledge of mental illnesses which may help them to cope better when dealing with others who have mental illness or their own mental illness. The only negative with this resource is that it does not provide activities for students to partake in, only information.

MindMatters Website Resources and Downloads – Kelsey Chandler @http://www.mindmatters.edu.au/resources_and_downloads/resources_landing.html

MindMatters. (n.d.). //Resources and Downloads//. Australia: Mind Matters. Retrieved October 6,, 2012, from [] This URL links to the ‘Resources and Downloads’ page on the MindMatters website. MindMatters is a national mental health initiative funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Aging. MindMatters aims to enable schools to embed promotion, prevention and early intervention activities for mental health and wellbeing into Australian secondary schools. The ‘Resources and Downloads’ section of the website includes information sheets which can be used by used teachers to gain a greater understanding of key factors that influence mental health and wellbeing. Some of the areas covered by the information sheets are adolescent mental health and wellbeing, key enablers for the whole school approach to mental health and wellbeing, key dimensions of the whole school approach to mental health and wellbeing, students experiencing high support needs in mental health, and how to plan for critical incidents. This page of the website also has a link to the ‘MindMatters Resource Kit’ which includes booklets full of learning activities that teachers can work through with students to improve their mental health and wellbeing. Key topics for these booklets include educating for life, enhancing resilience, dealing with bullying and harassment, understanding mental illness as well as loss and grief. This resource would be appropriate for teachers personal use and the resources within the ‘Resource Kit’ would be appropriate for any secondary school student (VELS levels 5 and 6 as well as VCE). Students exposed to this resource will be able to develop their resilience and communication skills and are likely to develop a more positive attitude toward their health and wellbeing. They will be exposed to information regarding how to ensure that their mental health and wellbeing is cared for and how they can help to improve the mental health and wellbeing of others. This resource is inclusive of diversity. Teachers would be able to use the resources available as a starting point and then develop it further to cater for differentiated learners within their classrooms.

__Body Image__ The Media’s Distortion of Beauty - YouTube __[]__ By Lillian Green
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 * Suits Secondary students.
 * Self-esteem, body image, eating disorders, media distortions
 * This video is quite old and uses statistics from USA, it’s also a really depressing song. Definitely needs to be verbally annotated to the class.

__Bullying__

__Official Video__
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This is a song by Kate Miller-Heidke that looks at the issue of bullying. The song is "written from the perspective of a passive observer" who doesn't stand up for a bullying victim and then feels guilty about it. It's quite a compelling and emotionally charged song that cold be used with any year level from 5/6s through to year 10 and 11s.

Below are some articles related to the Kate's song and the competition that students entered creating a music video to accompany the song. [|Daily Telegraph Article 16 February 2009] [|Inside News Article 27 February 2009]

Below is a link to the MySpace page that was used for the student entries and is now used as a space for kids to share their stories. "We've created this page for you to tell your own stories about bullying - whether you were a victim, an observer or the bully" The MySpace also provide links to other services such as [|Kids Helpline] and [|Cyber Smart] (a government cyber safety website). [|MySpace/caughtinthecrowd]

This is the[| winning entry] for the " Are you caught in the crowd" competition mentioned above. This was an anti bullying campaign by the Daily Telegraph in conjunction with the Department of Education, Sony, MySpace, Sunrise and Austereo. The winners were Dandenong High School. Although this was a competition I think it could also be replicated as a creative project for students. There is lot of cross curricular material within a project like this including areas of ICT, The Arts (music and visual), Communication, Personal Development, Literacy (attaching reflections to discuss feelings and personal stories), mathematics (looking at statistics interpreting data about the incidence and prevalence, trends etc) the list is endless! Obvious link to health and bullying such as the impacts on health (social, emotional, mental, physical) could be explored within a project like this as well. Student could also present the videos to students at their schools as part of a bullying campaign to raise awareness or just used as a conversation starter in the classroom.

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I think that this is an amazing resource and, as I already mentioned, could be used across a range of year levels and contexts.

Place the title or name of your resource/strategy for social, emotional and mental health education this page then create a linked page from the title to add your description and critique of your resource/strategy.

=Jorgen Leschke: Mental Health Powerpoints and resource= Concepts of normality quiz Differentiating between mental illness and mental health mental health powerpoint Phobias Powerpoint