DISRUPTED DEVELOPMENT

Exploring mental health in unit 1, Area of study 2

CREATING A SAFE AND SUPPORTIVE ENVIRONMENT WHEN TEACHING MENTAL HEALTH • Acknowledge that given 1 in 5 Australians have or will experience a mental health issue in their lifetime and that this can make the exploration of mental health issues emotionally challenging

• Establish a baseline of student knowledge

•Communicate resources students can access if they need additional support

IF YOU ARE UNCOMFORTABLE TEACHING MENTAL HEALTH• Documents in ResponseAbility

• Modules in Mind Matters

• Professional development at the Dax Centre

THE CONCEPTUALISATION OF NORMALITY INCLUDING TYPICAL AND ATYPICAL BEHAVIOURS; ADAPTIVE AND MALADAPTIVE BEHAVIOURS; AND MENTAL HEALTH AND MENTAL DISORDER AS A CONTINUUM

Mentally healthy – WHO define mental health as “..a state of well-being in which every individual realises his or her own potential, can cope with normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully and is able to make a contribution to her or his community”. It is important to remind students that being mentally healthy does not mean we don’t experience negative emotions, it just means that a person has healthy ways to cope with stress and negative emotions (Grivas and Carter, 2010). We call this resilience and it is explored further in dot point 2.

Mental health problem – an issue in a person’s life that can compromise one’s mental health and possibly result in a mental illness

Mental illness – a psychological dysfunction that usually involves impairment in the ability to cope with everyday life, distress and thoughts, feelings and or behaviours that are atypical of that person and may also be inappropriate within their culture (Grivas and Carter, 2011)

REFERENCE: GOVERNMENT OF CANADA (2011). THE FUNDAMENTALS – EMOPLOYERS RESPONSIBILITIES.

HTTPS://WWW.TBS-SCT.GC.CA/PSM-FPFM/VE/DEE/DMI-IGI/FUN-FON/ER-RE-ENG.ASP

LEARNING ACTIVITY: WHAT IS NORMAL?• Create a continuum within the classroom with typical at one end and atypical at the other

•Describe an ambiguous behaviour e.g. A man tells you he fell in love with a girl he just met. Ask the students to place themselves on the continuum from typical to atypical then ask students of different positions why they placed themselves there

•Now add the following information to the scenario – the girl the man is talking about is his newborn daughter . Now ask if any of the students want to change their position and ask any one who changed for a justification

•Other behaviours to explore might include: being scared of cats, listening to heavy metal music alone in a room, never letting anyone see your flesh

•This activity allows you to explore the importance of context when determining whether a behaviour is considered typical.

RESOURCES Resource Description Website Mind matters “What is mental health?” module video

Short 3 minute video that explores mental health in a clear and concise manner

 

http://www.mindmatters.edu.au/explore-modules/what-is-mental-health-

 

Year 12 Dax Pack has a whole chapter on the mental health continuum including learning activities and can be purchased from

 

www.daxcentre.org.au

Ted Talk Elyn Saks “ A tale of mental illness”

A great introduction to mental health by a person who has an experience of schizophrenia. Approximately 15 minutes.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6CILJA110Y&index=9&list=PLAnaLI5PdtdEPjFPoEaUgOAfwJv-TEoh4

 

MENTAL HEALTH AS A PRODUCT OF INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL FACTORS WHICH ASSIST INDIVIDUALS TO COPE WITH CHANGE AND CHALLENGE

internal factors

externalfactors

resilience

MENTAL HEALTH AS A PRODUCT OF INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL FACTORS WHICH ASSIST INDIVIDUALS TO COPE WITH CHANGE AND CHALLENGE Internal factors External factors

Good social and emotional skills Optimistic personality Positive coping style Good attachment to primary care

givers

• Family harmony and stability• Sense of belonging • Access to support services • Strong cultural identity and pride

LEARNING ACTIVITY: BUCKET MODEL OF MENTAL HEALTH Imagine that we all carry around our own bucket and this bucket represents everything that influences our lives. There is only so much that we can carry and when the bucket gets too full/heavy our mental health might be affected. For some people this might mean that they have a greater chance of developing a mental illness.

BUT

We can make our buckets bigger or put holes in our bucket to stop it over flowing

Brainstorm with the class – what factors could determine the size of your bucket? (predisposing factors)

What factors can fill up our bucket? (precipitating factors)

What factors can put holes in our bucket? (protective factors)

You can then get your students to analyse the effectiveness of this model

LEARNING ACTIVITY: CAN COLOURING BE CONSIDERED A USEFUL COPING STRATEGY

Aim: to discover if colouring in can reduce stress and thus be used as a positive coping strategy

Hypothesis: that people who colour in after a stress inducing event will return to a baseline of stress (as indicated by heart rate) quicker than those who do nothing after the stress inducing event

Materials:

•Coloured pencils

•Photocopies of some colouring in sheets http://www.coloring-pages-adults.com/coloring-zen/

•Heart rate monitor

•A clip of a new born crying

 

METHOD

Part 1

Measure the participants baseline heart rate for 3 minutes

Play a clip of a newborn crying for 3 minutes to induce a stress response (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TjmHkVMEdI)

Stop playing the clip of a newborn crying and record how long it takes the participant’s heart rate to go back to baseline

Part 2

Measure the participants baseline heart rate for 3 minutes

Play a clip of a newborn crying for 3 minutes to induce a stress response

Stop playing the clip of a newborn crying and ask the participant to colour on the paper provided. Record how long it takes for the participants heart rate to go back to baseline

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Gather the classes results and find the mean time to return to baseline of all participants for both part 1 and part 2 and graph the results

Questions:

Q1. Which groups heart rate returned to normal first? What conclusions can you draw from this?

Q2. Can you generalise this conclusion to the wider population?

Q3. This experiment used a repeat measures design. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this design method?

Q4. Would you recommend colouring as a positive coping technique? Why/ why not?

USEFUL RESOURCES FOR EXPLORING RESILIENCE Resource Useful for Link

Ted Talk “Cultivating Resilience” by Greg Eells

A 15 minute video discussing how individuals can improve their resilience to protect their mental health

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLzVJVM1BUc

Mind matters module 1.3 developing resilience

This module is designed for teachers trying to improve mental health in schools but is good at explaining how resilience improves mental health

http://www.mindmatters.edu.au/explore-modules/developing-resilience

Reach Out “Building resilience in young people”

This resource aims to explain resilience and implement resilience building skills in the classroom

http://au.professionals.reachout.com/building-resiliency-in-young-people-resource

Beyond Blue “SenseAbility” A strengths based resilience program, too many activities for you to complete the whole module but you may might to include one or two of the activities

https://das.bluestaronline.com.au/api/prism/document?token=BL/1423

MAJOR CATEGORIES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDER: ADDICTION DISORDERS; ANXIETY DISORDERS; MOOD DISORDERS; PERSONALITY DISORDERS; AND PSYCHOTIC DISORDERS Category Definition Example Resources

addiction disorders

Addiction is a state characterized by compulsive engagement in rewarding stimuli, despite adverse consequences

Alcoholism Mental illness fellowshipReach Out

anxiety disorders

An Anxiety disorder is a medical condition characterised by persistent, excessive worry

General anxiety disorder

Beyond blueSANE Australia

mood disorders

a psychiatric disorder in which the principal feature is mood disturbance.  

Major depression Beyond blue Black Dog Institute

personality disorders

Personality disorders are mental health conditions that negatively affect how people manage their feelings and how they relate to other people.

Borderline personality disorder

SANE AustraliaMental Illness Fellowship

psychotic disorders

Psychotic disorders are severe mental disorders that cause abnormal thinking and perceptions. People with psychoses lose touch with reality.

Schizophrenia SANE Australia Orygen

LEARNING ACTIVITY: PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDER JIGSAWDivide the class into 5 groups and assign each group one of the major psychological disorder categories and ask each group to find out the following information:

General symptoms of the category

Three associated illnesses

What factors can contribute to its development?

How common are these disorders in society?

What treatment options are available?

Three helpful websites

Then either have each group present to the class or have a member of each group create several new groups in order to share information. Click here for grid for students to fill in.

THE ‘TWO-HIT’ HYPOTHESIS AS AN EXPLANATION FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF PARTICULAR PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS, ILLUSTRATED BY SCHIZOPHRENIA.

Mental IllnessVulnerable Brain

DevelopingBrain

Developmentaldisruptions

eg. Maternal factors, Gene deficit

Late environmental disruptions

eg. Drug abuse, social stress

SUMMARY OF RESEARCH IN THE

TWO HIT HYPOTHESIS

Klug M, Hill RA, Choy KH, Kyrios M, Hannan AJ, van den Buuse M. (2012). Long-term behavioral and NMDA receptor effects of young-adult corticosterone treatment in BDNF heterozygous mice.Neurobiol Dis. 2012 Jun;46(3):722-31. doi: 10.1016/j.nbd.2012.03.015. Epub 2012 Mar 9. 

BACKGROUNDWhat is Brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF)? • A growth factor that promotes synaptic growth and cell survival• BDNF is reduced in both the blood and brain tissue in human patients with schizophrenia•The amount of BDNF produced by a person is genetically determined

What is corticosterone ? • Steroid hormone involved in regulating a stress response

What is spatial memory?• The part of memory responsible for recording information about your physical

environment and your orientation with respect to other things within that environment. This type of memory is known to be impaired by people with an experience of schizophrenia.

LEARNING ACTIVITY: ANALYSIS OF DATA/RESULTS INCLUDING GENERALISATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS

Source: Klug M, Hill RA, Choy KH, Kyrios M, Hannan AJ, van den Buuse M. (2012). Long-term behavioral and NMDA receptor effects of young-adult corticosterone treatment in BDNF heterozygous mice. Neurobiol Dis. 2012 Jun;46(3):722-31. doi: 10.1016/j.nbd.2012.03.015. Epub 2012 Mar 9.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. What information is on the x-axis?

2. What information is on the y-axis?

3. Summarise the female data

4. Summarise the male data

5. What is a reasonable conclusion the researcher could draw from this data?

6. What implications does this conclusion have for schizophrenia research?

7. Are these conclusions generalizable to humans? Why/ why not?

8. Could this experiment be performed on humans? In your response ensure you address both scientific method and ethics.

9. Based on these results, describe an interesting line of research to pursue.

OTHER RESEARCH IN THE FIELD Feigenson, K. A., Kusnecov, A. W., & Silverstein, S. M. (2014). Inflammation and the two-hit hypothesis of schizophrenia. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 38, 72-93.

Dalton, V. S., Verdurand, M., Walker, A., Hodgson, D. M., & Zavitsanou, K. (2012). Synergistic Effect between Maternal Infection and Adolescent Cannabinoid Exposure on Serotonin 5 H T 1 A Receptor Binding in the Hippocampus: Testing the “Two Hit” Hypothesis for the Development of Schizophrenia. ISRN psychiatry, 2012.

REFERENCES

Australian Government and Beyond Blue (2012). Kids matter. www.kidsmatter.edu.au

Australian Government Department of Health and Hunter Institute of Mental Health (2012). Response Ability. www.responsibility.org

Australian Government and Beyond Blue (2015). Mind matters. www.mindmatters.edu.au

Grivas, J., Letch, N., Down, R. and Carter, L. (2010). Psychology VCE units 3 &4 (4th ed.). Macmillian, South Yarra.

The Dax Centre (2011). Year 12 Dax Pack. The Dax Centre, Melbourne.

World Health Organisation (2012). Mental Health Action Plan 2013-2020. www.who.int/mental_health/action_plan_2013/en/

PROFESSIONAL HELP•Your local council. Each council usually has a Youth Services Department that provides free and confidential counselling for young people..

•Your school counsellor.

•HEADSPACE – www.headspace.org.au

•Kids helpline – 1800 55 1800

•Lifeline – 13 11 14