Fostering a Shared Language for Children’s Mental Health: Development of the Children’s Wellbeing Continuum
Tracks
Ballroom 2 - In Person Only
| Wednesday, March 20, 2024 |
| 9:20 AM - 9:40 AM |
Overview
Sarthak Gandhi, Murdoch Children's Research Institute
Details
Presentation Key Learnings:
1. The novel Children's Wellbeing Continuum marks a significant departure from traditional and restrictive binary models of mental health and well-being, and resonates with key stakeholders in the team around the child (including educators, health professionals and parents/caregivers).
2. The final design of the Continuum is critical to its universal acceptance across diverse populations and settings, including the use of icons, colours and simple, accessible language.
3. The Continuum has a role in fostering a shared understanding and language in child mental health, with the potential to have impacts on stigma, mental health literacy and help-seeking.
Speaker
Mr Sarthak Gandhi
Research Assistant
Murdoch Children's Research Institute
Fostering a Shared Language for Children’s Mental Health: Development of the Children’s Wellbeing Continuum
Abstract
A shared and accessible language in child mental health, encompassing the full spectrum of children’s mental health and wellbeing, is critical for prevention, promotion and effective communication across diverse settings and sectors. This study aimed to design and test a novel continuum to describe children’s mental health and wellbeing, collaboratively with, and for key stakeholders in the team around the child.
A mixed-methods study was carried out with Australian educators, health professionals, and parents/caregivers. A Delphi consensus study was conducted as part of the design process to establish agreement on the language and descriptors employed in anchor points for a four-point continuum, producing a prototype. Subsequently, focus groups provided feedback on this prototype, testing how it resonated and its acceptability across settings, with a focus on translation. In particular, this involved assessing the language, cultural appropriateness, visual elements, and utility of this continuum.
The terms “good, coping, struggling, overwhelmed” emerged as the preferred language to be used for each of the four points on the continuum. To visually convey the continuum, participants supported a traffic-light colour system and accompanying icons. Descriptors designed to accompany the continuum, developed from the initial prototype, were deemed too confusing by focus groups, and were consequently excluded from the final version. Inductive content analysis identified that participants found value in this continuum as a tool to facilitate conversation among educators, health professionals and parents/caregivers about an individual child’s mental health.
The Children’s Wellbeing Continuum, developed through extensive stakeholder consultation, has the potential to support ongoing transformative shifts in the way children’s mental health is conceptualised. Its role in initiating and supporting conversation about a child’s mental health, between stakeholders, can foster a shared language in this domain. In turn, this may serve to improve help-seeking behaviours, reduce stigma, and enhance support systems for children.
A mixed-methods study was carried out with Australian educators, health professionals, and parents/caregivers. A Delphi consensus study was conducted as part of the design process to establish agreement on the language and descriptors employed in anchor points for a four-point continuum, producing a prototype. Subsequently, focus groups provided feedback on this prototype, testing how it resonated and its acceptability across settings, with a focus on translation. In particular, this involved assessing the language, cultural appropriateness, visual elements, and utility of this continuum.
The terms “good, coping, struggling, overwhelmed” emerged as the preferred language to be used for each of the four points on the continuum. To visually convey the continuum, participants supported a traffic-light colour system and accompanying icons. Descriptors designed to accompany the continuum, developed from the initial prototype, were deemed too confusing by focus groups, and were consequently excluded from the final version. Inductive content analysis identified that participants found value in this continuum as a tool to facilitate conversation among educators, health professionals and parents/caregivers about an individual child’s mental health.
The Children’s Wellbeing Continuum, developed through extensive stakeholder consultation, has the potential to support ongoing transformative shifts in the way children’s mental health is conceptualised. Its role in initiating and supporting conversation about a child’s mental health, between stakeholders, can foster a shared language in this domain. In turn, this may serve to improve help-seeking behaviours, reduce stigma, and enhance support systems for children.
Biography
Sarthak Gandhi is a final-year medical student, lived experience national youth mental health advocate and research assistant. He is actively engaged in the youth mental health space across several perspectives; as a youth advisor for headspace National (and part of the organisation's governance boards), as a research assistant at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute working in the Mental Health in Primary Schools program and in clinical roles. Previously, he held positions as co-chair of Teddy Bear Hospital and executive officer at the Psychiatry Society of Monash. He hopes to meaningfully contribute to positive change in youth mental health!
