Realizing potential: Promoting resilience in children and youth in Eastern region

1. Realizing potential: Promoting resilience in children and youth in Eastern region

2. In today’s presentation, we ask: • What is resilience? • Why is it important? • How do we promote resilience? • What is happening in Eastern region? • What are the challenges in working towards resilience? • What are some strategies for success?

3. What is resilience? The capacity of children and youth that allows them to adapt and persevere in the face of adversity

4. Why is it important? • A strengths-based focus • A shift towards prevention and mental health promotion • Helps us to understand how to support young people to minimize negative impacts and maximize positive ones

5. Some basic definitions…

6. Early research Individual temperament Absence of biological/genetic threats Psychological well-being • A safe • environment • A nurturing • family

7. More recent research • An ecological view of resilience • Culture and context are key • The International Resilience Project • Focus on understanding resilience across 14 communities in Canada, China, Palestine, Israel, Columbia, Russia, India, USA, Gambia, Tanzania and South Africa

8. How do we promote resilience in child and youth mental health? • Identify and minimize risk factors • Identify and enhance protective factors • Resolve problems that set the stage for challenging behaviours in a collaborative way (“kids do well if they can”) • Work preventatively to promote the healthy development of youth

9. What is happening in Eastern region? • The Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS) community of practice • Communities that Care (CTC)

10. Ottawa Community of Practice Collaborative Problem Solving

11. Ottawa Community of Practice (CoP: Ottawa) Definition of Community of Practice “Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly” (Etienne Wenger)

12. What is a CoP? • Deliberate • Emphasizes ongoing, collective learning • Focuses on interaction, growth and evolution of members (both individually and as a group) • No formal beginning or end • A site for creating practice-based evidence (a complement to EvBP)

13. Collaborative Problem Solving Ottawa Community of Practice Funding from CoE to receive Advanced Level’s I & II training in CPS. Created a weekly forum for further training and supervision (CHEO, CCC, YSB, RSC, OCCARS, Cornwall Hospital and Christie Lake). Why the CPS CoP was Established? Development of common language and treatment modality. Anti-stigma and creating resiliency In response to SOCPR evaluation. Integration and coordination. Seamless transition for children/youth and families. Strength based treatment planning.

14. Collaborative Problem Solving

15. Collaborative Problem Solving Developed by Dr. Ross Greene. Is a cognitive, behavioral approach. Requires a change in mindset in how to work with children presenting with challenging behaviours (i.e., inflexible, explosive). The goal of CPS is to decrease adversarial interactions between parents and children, improve children’s capacities for flexibility, frustration tolerance, communication and self-regulation. Increase resiliency in children.

16. Kids do well if they can… …if they can’t, we need to figure out what’s getting in their way so we can help

17. Your explanation guides your Intervention…

18. Conventional Wisdom Because of poor (passive, permissive, inconsistent) parenting, challenging kids have learned that their behaviour is effective at getting things (e.g., attention) or escaping or avoiding things (e.g., homework).

19. Logical Intervention Motivation more compliant behaviour through the use of intensive, consistent programs of rewards, punishment and ignoring.

20. Unconventional Wisdom:It’s a Learning Disability Some kids are delayed in the development of crucial cognitive (thinking) skills – in areas like flexibility/adaptability, frustration tolerance, and problem-solving – or have significant difficulty applying these skills when they are most needed.

21. Logical Intervention Identify the lagging skills contribution to the challenging behaviour and then teach them. Identify the problems or triggers precipitating the challenging behaviour and work towards solving them (while maintaining adults as authority figures). Create resiliency in children generalizing strengths and skills to multiple environments.

22. “He just wants attention.” We all want attention so this explanation isn’t very useful for helping us understand why a kid is struggling to do well. And if a kid is seeking attention in a maladaptive way, doesn’t that suggest he lacks the skills to seek attention in an adaptive way?

23. “He’s manipulating us.” This is a very popular, and misguided, characterization of kids with behavioral challenges. Competent manipulation requires various skills – forethought, planning, impulse control, and organization, among others – typically found lacking in challenging kids.

24. “He’s not motivated.” This is another very popular characterization that can be traced back to the “kids do well if they want to” mentality, and it can lead us straight to interventions aimed at giving a kid the incentive to do well. But why would any kid not want to do well?

25. Model Overview Because this model views challenging behaviour as the byproduct of a learning disability of sorts, the emphasis is entirely different… Assessment “raw materials”. • What’s going on in this kid’s head that we wish wasn’t? • What isn’t going on this kid’s head that we wish was? Goals of intervention. • teaching lagging thinking skills • collaboratively solving problems.

26. Mantra Behind every challenging behaviour is either a trigger or a lagging skill or both.

27. Pathways There is a rich literature linking challenging behaviour with deficits in the following areas (“Pathways”): Executive skills Language processing skills Emotion regulation skills Cognitive flexibility skills Social skills * Replacing these lagging skills (Risk Factors) with Protective Factors.

28. Where f(x) = -3x^3+(x^-1/2) +f(y), f(y) = x^3-3x^2

29. C’est ta communauté Communities That Care Bienvenue !! Welcome!!

30. Plan de présentation Schedule • C’est ta communauté/ Communities That Care; • Le programme «Clefs pour l’adolescence»/ Lions Quest - Skills for Adolescence Program; • Les jeunes; la communauté/ Our youth; our community

31. C’est ta communauté (CTC) est un projet communautaire qui vise à rassembler les membres d’une communauté afin de trouver les meilleurs moyens possibles pour favoriser le sain développement des jeunes de Prescott-Russell. Communities That Care (CTC) is run by caring citizens of Prescott and Russell who work together to promote the healthy development of our youth.

32. CTC vise à réduire et à prévenir cinq comportements : • La consommation de drogues et d’alcool; • La grossesse précoce; • La violence; • La délinquance; • Le décrochage scolaire.

33. CTC aims at reducin the following 5 behaviours : • Alcohol and drug use • Teenage pregnancy • Violence • Delinquency • School Drop-out

34. Collectivité entière • Le projet CTC mobilise tous ceux qui ont l’avenir des jeunes à cœur. • C’est un projet qui se fonde sur des études rigoureuses qui sont testées et validées.

35. Le sondage -The survey

36. Sondage CTC Un sondage a été effectué auprès des élèves de 6e, 8e, 10e et 12e années dans 24 écoles de la région de Prescott-Russell. Au total, 2 243 sondages ont été complétés.

37. Sondage CTC 140 questions ont été demander, par exemples; • Dans la DERNIÈRE ANNÉE combien de fois as-tu été soul ou « high » à l’école ? • À quelle fréquence est-ce que tes parents te disent qu’ils sont fiers de toi quand tu fais quelque chose de bien? • À combien d’occasions as-tu consommé de l’alcohol dans les 30 derniers jours?

38. Selon le sondage les facteurs de risques les plus dominants sont; • L’attitude des jeunes favorisant la consommation de drogues et d’alcool; • L’attitude des jeunes favorisant les comportements délinquants; • L’attitude des parents favorisant la consommation de drogues et d’alcool.

39. L’attitude des parents favorisant la consommation de drogues et d’alcool

40. Facteurs de protection • Selon le sondage les facteurs de protection les plus positifs se retrouvent dans le domaine scolaire. • Les élèves indiquent avoir des occasions positives à l’école et reçoivent la reconnaissance pour leur implication.

41. Programme de prévention Pour faire suite aux résultas du sondage CTC, l’étude des données de notre communauté, l’évaluation des ressources communautaires existantes et les recherches des programmes CTC, les conseils communautaires ont choisi le programme de prévention : LIONS QUEST – SKILLS FOR ADOLESCENCE CLEFS POUR L’ADOLESCENCE

42. Lions Quest

43. Lions Quest Le programmeLions Quest « Les clefs pour l’adolescence » a pour but d’aider les jeunes à développer des habiletés afin de prendre des décisions responsables, d’établir de bonnes relations et de gérer efficacement des situations difficiles.

44. Lions Quest • Programme de prévention en milieu scolaire; • Mise en œuvre en 7e année; • Implication et soutien de la communauté; • L’engagement des jeunes envers leur famille, leurs pairs, l’école et leur communauté.

45. Les effets positifs du programme • Développe des attitudes de base telles que l’écoute active, le respect, la confiance et la franchise; • Crée un climat positif dans la salle de classe, dans l’école et dans la communauté (moins de taxage et d’intimidation); • Augmente la coopération dans la salle de classe (moins de discipline).

46. Lions Quest • Raise the level of respect in class, at home, with friends. • Learn to communicate and express their emotions (fear, anger, joy); • Learn how to deal with difficult situations and manage stress; • Work on self-esteem - learn how to make good decisions; • Learn how to listen and learn from positive role models; • Build positive relationships.

47. Casselman – Hawkesbury – Clarence-Rockland La mise en oeuvre du programme; • Onze (11) écoles ; • Vingt-cinq (25) classes; • 700 élèves approximativement; • Programme offerts en Français et en Englais

48. Année 2009-2010 • Solidifier la mise en œuvre du programme; • L’intégration des partenaires communautaires; • Volet parental et communautaire de LQ; • Sondage CTC 2010;

49. CTC Philosophy

50. The goal… Healthy behaviors …for all children and youth Start with… Healthy beliefs & clear standards …in families, schools, communities and peer groups Build… Bonding • Attachment • Commitment …to families, schools, communities and peer groups By providing… By providing…By providing… Opportunities SkillsRecognition …in families, schools, communities and peer groups And by nurturing… Individual characteristics