A Healthy Headspace

ANNA TRAHAIR YEAR 12 SOCIAL JUSTICE PREFECT

It’s a well-established fact that the Australian teenage population is facing a mental health crisis and has been for a long time. According to Beyond Blue, 1 in 7 young people aged 4 to 17 years experience a mental health condition in any given year.

If anything, this situation has been exacerbated by the long months of isolation and the uncertainty brought about by COVID-19, creating what Josh Frydenberg has referred to as a ‘shadow pandemic’ – the mental illness burden directly caused by COVID-19. You may remember seeing the horrifying headline of ‘more than 40 NSW children and teenagers rushed to hospital for self-harm every day’ in the Sydney Morning Herald a couple of months ago, which linked a spike in incidents of self-harm directly to the pandemic. Recently, The Australian National Uiversity (ANU) published a study on the impact of COVID-19 on the mental health of young adults, finding that ‘71% of parents and carers of Australians aged 15 to 18 reported worsening mental health conditions for their children’.

These statistics aren’t merely numbers on a page. They’ve affected me personally – over the past couple of years, I’ve supported people suffering from mental illness. I’ve had numerous conversations about mental illness – many of which didn’t go to plan. I’ve been in circumstances where I’ve tried to be the best of friends; but where I’ve found that it wasn’t humanly possible for me to provide the kind of support needed.

I’ve found that there have been many situations when I and my friends have all been aware that someone has been going through a mental health crisis, yet where no one has known what to do, or what to say.

In Year 11, I came to the realisation that I wanted to help my peers but didn’t feel I had the skill set to meaningfully support those with mental illness – and that many of my peers didn’t either. I approached Ms Stone to outline my concerns, and I recommended that the school adopt an outsourced Mental Health First Aid program.

The greatest realisation was that my school community was already beginning to embrace this issue and develop skills and strategies that could assist all our community members. Ms Stone and the Executive had already started to consider the implementation of mental health first aid programs and amongst my peers, action was being taken –Jenni Lin had introduced a similar Mental Health First Aid course at her local youth centre, and Bella Lonie has worked on projects to promote awareness of mental illness.

This year, the School began rolling Mental Health First Aid courses through MHFA Australia. The objective was to ensure that, as a part of our wellbeing course, every student at Queenwood, from Years 7 –12, has the opportunity to participate in an intensive, 3-hour long program focusing on developing skills and strategies necessary to support peers with mental health problems.

Over the April school holidays, Queenwood Senior School teaching staff participated in a rigorous, two-day Mental Health First Aid course – a precursor to the student program. This is distinct from many schools where usual practice is that a select few pastoral staff to qualify as mental health first aiders. Queenwood teachers are now well-equipped to support students in crisis and more confident addressing increasingly complex issues and conversations around mental health in young people.

The next stage of the program is to train students in Mental Health First Aid. We anticipate that this program that will bring significant benefits to the school community, fostering an environment where students and staff alike are able to engage in productive and meaningful conversations about mental health and wellbeing. •

On Mental Health First Aid Training for Staff:

The Mental Health First Aid course was invaluable professional development, as it centred on collegial conversations about the everyday struggles of our young people, and it gave us a platform to share how we would approach the management of mental health in our school context.

CARLA YOUNAN YEAR 8 COORDINATOR

The Mental Health First Aid course provided staff with an opportunity to extend their understanding of the myriad of issues that can impact on the health and, concurrently, learning capacity of our students. The course allowed us to draw on the extensive knowledge and experiences of health care professionals, gain insight into the specific nature of different mental health issues, and apply strategies to help our community manage those challenges.

GREG M c ARDLE HEAD OF TECHNOLOGICAL & APPLIED STUDIES

Having worked with young women for many decades, I have witnessed many elements of change and possibly the most significant is the increasing need to understand Mental Health. For all Senior School teaching staff, being trained in Youth Mental Health First Aid, was an incredibly powerful tool. Our teachers now feel equipped with both knowledge and skills, and this is a testament to the value Queenwood places on the wellbeing of our students.

SUZANNE KERR DIRECTOR OF WELLBEING

The Youth Mental Health First Aid course has been designed by Mental Health First Aid Australia. Learn more at mhfa.com.au

A Scientific Mind with Michelle Gleeson

Our Head of Science, Michelle Gleeson, tells us about her work in agricultural biosecurity, what led her to teaching, and the importance of critical thinking skills in today’s world.

What led you to become a science teacher?

I was very fortunate to have a series of enthusiastic and passionate science teachers in high school. My senior biology teacher was particularly inspiring, so it was a natural choice to go on to study Biotechnology at uni. I loved studying, soaking up new understanding and skills, and stayed to complete an Honours degree in research and eventually went back for a PhD. As a PhD student, I assisted in teaching undergraduate courses as a tutor and laboratory demonstrator, and discovered that watching the dawn of comprehension on students’ faces as they really ‘got it’ was wonderfully satisfying. After the arrival of my second child, the unpredictable nature of bench research sent me looking for another way to indulge my passion for science and life-long learning, so I re-trained to become a science teacher.

What was your first job when you finished university?

My first job after completing my undergraduate degree and Honours research year was at the NSW Department of Agriculture, working on the molecular biology of plant diseases. This might explain why I am better at killing plants than growing them! I got to experience and learn from scientists in a wide variety of fields, including chemists and biochemists, entomologists, mycologists, virologists and my favourite, microbiologists. Science is such a team endeavour, sharing our discoveries with each other is critical for advancing our understanding.

Tell us a little more about your previous research roles. What attracted you to this area of science?

I have always been drawn to areas where I could make a difference, working on research projects with practical applications. My work in plant pathology included developing a better test for detecting diseases in plants, helping to protect Australia’s valuable citrus industry and agricultural biosecurity. My PhD and postdoc work was in veterinary parasitology, studying important parasites of sheep, cattle and chickens, including a small part towards developing a vaccine to protect chickens from the deadly disease Coccidiosis. It feels so satisfying to have helped to produce something genuinely useful and important.

What stands out for you about teaching at Queenwood?

So many things about Queenwood make it my favourite school of all the places I have taught. The emphasis on a liberal education, and in giving girls the skills to make a difference in the world, to make a genuine and valuable contribution in whatever field they choose, aligns closely with my own values. There’s an overall willingness to give things a go, and a wide range of cocurricular offerings to satisfy this drive – my current favourite is the QUTE solar vehicle project. There is a culture of high academic expectations, combined with the pastoral and learning support required for each girl to achieve their best. I love our core values of Truth, Courage and Service, in fostering resilience and independence, and in encouraging students to recognise their position of privilege and to give back to the wider community. Before arriving, I didn’t expect to find such a well-grounded and lovely bunch of students who are a genuine pleasure to teach.

Why do you think it is so important to be interested in Science?

We need critical thinking and problem-solving skills more than ever! Learning about the processes of science teaches students to evaluate information in a way that will lead them to the truth. There is a bottomless pit of misinformation and nonsense right at their fingertips now, wellblended with genuine knowledge. The real skill lies in sorting the facts from the fake news, and being able to make accurate, informed judgements. Scientific discoveries have been changing our lives for hundreds of years, and the pace of discovery is only accelerating. Having the skills to understand scientific developments helps us to make wise decisions, for both the big-picture problems our world is facing including climate change and the current pandemic but also for our individual health and wellbeing.

Anything further you would like to share?

The next generation of scientists have a massive job on their hands. They will need to come up with innovative solutions for problems that we can’t yet comprehend, to support a growing world population existing in a dynamic and deteriorating environment. This can’t be done without adequate funding and government support to develop our current and future scientists and provide a viable long-term career path so we can train and retain our best and brightest minds here in Australia. We’ve got an incredible track record of producing world-class results on a shoe-string budget, and on average, every dollar invested in Australian research and development has returned an absolute minimum of $3.50 1 We need to be willing to invest in and build our capacity, to reap these rewards for the benefit of all of us. It would truly give me the greatest satisfaction of my career to witness any of my students go on to achieve great things for Australian science. I have every reason to hope, because they continue to impress me every day! •

THIS PAGE: Michelle teaches Year 9 Science how electrical currents work, via a range of practical experiments. OPPOSITE PAGE: Students participate in a practical biology lesson.

1 Wynn, K., Liu, M. and Cohen, J., 2022. Quantifying the economy-wide returns to innovation for Australia. Australian Economic Papers, [online] Available at: <https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/ doi/10.1111/1467-8454.12262> [Accessed 18 May 2022].