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- The kinds of things that parents notice
are changes in behaviour or changes in mood.
The mood things tend to be a young person
who is more irritable, or angry,
or just looking pretty sad and miserable.
And the behavioural changes relate to
just not participating in life the way
that they would expect their young person to.
The important bit about these changes
is that they tend to be persistent,
meaning, going on for weeks and weeks
rather than just a couple of days
or just related to an obvious stressful event like an exam.
- The most common mental health problems
that young people experience
are depression, anxiety, and also substance use disorders.
And we know that in any given year,
about one in four young people will experience difficulty
with one of these or maybe more than one of these problems.
- But there are other things as well
which have a big impact on mental health.
So experiencing bullying or being ostracised
from peer groups is one of the big ones.
Concerns about body image, and how they present
and look to others and to themselves is a big one as well.
Stress related to school and worry about how school is going.
Relationships is a huge issue
and I think it's an underlying theme in many or most
of the mental health difficulties that we see.
- Try and be calm and non-judgmental and non-blaming,
'cause that's the thing that worries a young person.
Tell a young person what you've noticed.
If, say, I notice that you're not your usual self,
I notice you're spending a lot of time in your room...
- It might take a few goes
before someone's willing to open up.
Sometimes it can really work to
rather than sitting down and looking face-to-face,
that it's shared activity when you
go for a walk or in the car, so it's not too confrontational.
- It's important for parents to be informed
about what's out there and then to think
about what might be the most appropriate service
for them and their young person.
In trying to find out about services,
going online, going to the headspace website is very useful.
- A parent might also feel more comfortable
about having a one-on-one discussion
with a family GP to get some advice.
Another option is also to have that connection with the school,
so maybe talking to welfare coordinator at the school
or the year-level coordinator to see what the options for support are.
- Many young people are reluctant to get help.
They're worried about what will their friends think,
what will happen if when they go there, who will I see?
Are they gonna have to be on tablets?
It's important sometimes to understand
what's that reluctance about,
and is there a way that they
can seek help that works for them.
- It can be challenging if a parent really thinks
that a young person doesn't want help
and they know that they need some additional support.
So I think some of the things that they can do
is to persist with the conversation in a gentle way,
to think about involving some trusted family or friends
that could help talk to the young person
about the difficulties.
Keeping the young person informed,
so giving them information about what treatment
would be like, or what a service would be like.
- The counsellor will talk to the young person
and get their view, will want to talk to the parents,
and also, often want to talk to the school
to get that overall, holistic picture
of how's this young person tracking,
obviously with the young person and parents' permission.
- It is important for parents to be as involved
in a young person's treatment as possible,
but this may vary on the level of involvement
the young person wants them to have.
The counsellor has certain limits around
how much they can talk about what's discussed in those sessions.
But unless a counsellor is really concerned
about a young person's safety or the safety of others,
on the whole, they keep the information
that's shared in sessions confidential.
- One of the main things to remember
is that we don't have to work it all out.
If we just recognise, OK, the person I care so much about,
we know is having some difficulties,
that's enough to start with.
Once someone is in a service,
then we can work out a little bit more
about all of the little bits and pieces
that need to be attended to.
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