Our Way Our Say: The Co-development of a Holistic Social and Emotional Youth Wellbeing Program
Tracks
Conference Centre Room 1
| Wednesday, March 30, 2022 |
| 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM |
Overview
Ms Michele Oliphant, Headspace Schools; Mrs Eileen Cummings & Ms Amanda Hart, Our Way Our Say Reference Group Member
Speaker
Mrs Eileen Cummings
Our Way Our Say Reference Group Member
Our Way Our Say First Nations Reference Group Members
Our Way Our Say: The Co-development of a Holistic Social and Emotional Youth Wellbeing Program
Abstract
Please see Michele Oliphant
Biography
Eileen Cummings is a Rembarrnga Ngalakan woman, born in Arnhem Land and raised at Mainarou until she was about five years old, when she was stolen from her family and sent to live on the mission on Croker Island. Eileen was the first Indigenous person in the Northern Territory to qualify as a pre-school teacher. She also worked as a senior policy adviser to the Northern Territory Chief Minister in the Office of Women's Policies where she gave advice on women's issues. She coordinated the consultation in the development of the Aboriginal Family Violence Strategy and was a co-author. She is the Chairperson of the Northern Territory Stolen Generations Aboriginal Corporation. She works to bring compensation to those who are part of the Stolen Generation. Eileen is a University Fellow of CDU where she ensures the research is developed according to the highest standards of research in Western and Aboriginal contexts, Eileen supports the engagement of Aboriginal people as researchers and advisors and provides leadership and authority for working appropriately and collaboratively with Aboriginal communities to improve outcomes at all levels.
Ms Amanda Hart
Our Way Our Say Reference Group Member
Our Way Our Say First Nations Reference Group Members
Our Way Our Say: The Co-development of a Holistic Social and Emotional Youth Wellbeing Program
Abstract
Please see Michele Oliphant
Biography
Amanda Hart is a Bagala woman from the Jawoyn people of the Katherine region in the Northern Territory. Amanda has an honours degree in psychology and is a registered psychologist with extensive experience in working with remote and regional communities across the Northern Territory, She has been a School Counsellor, was instrumental in consulting with remote communities to inform an NT Social and Emotional Learning curriculum, and more recently led the development of the NT Suicide Prevention Strategic Framework 2018-2023. Amanda, with the community-led mental health team, also co-designed the award-winning trauma-informed culturally responsive post-disaster recovery model, which places cultural knowledge and understandings at its core, after two cyclones were experienced within a matter of weeks in 2015. She is also a founding member of the Australian Indigenous Psychologists Association (AIPA) and served as a Steering Committee Member from 2008 to 2013 and oversaw the development and delivery of AIPA’s Cultural Competence workshops across Australia. Amanda currently leads the Consumer Engagement team at Royal Darwin Hospital.
Ms Michele Oliphant
headspace Schools Program Manager
headspace
Our Way Our Say: The Co-development of a Holistic Social and Emotional Youth Wellbeing Program
Abstract
In 2018, as part of the National Suicide Prevention Trial, the Darwin site steering committee identified that the national approach to promoting help-seeking, mental health, and suicide prevention in schools needed to be strengthened to include place-based approaches relevant to, and appropriate for, First Nations young people living in the Darwin region.
headspace Schools were commissioned to co-design a resource which supported young people to build the skills required to help seek using a development process that facilitated local ownership, knowledge, and experience.
The first phase of this project resulted in the production of a video containing local images encompassing the ideas and strategies which First Nations Peoples identified as ‘Strengthening Our Spirits’. The video clearly contained local messages, but further work was needed for young people to develop the necessary mental health literacies required to implement the help seeking messages of the resource.
Phase two of the project was to co-design a training program to complement the video. The program needed to be culturally appropriate and evidence informed to explicitly teach young people the micro skills needed to seek help at times of crisis (suicide prevention), whilst also building skills in the areas of mental health promotion, prevention, and early intervention which were required to facilitate suicide prevention.
To ensure cultural and clinical safety, the development and design process was a collaboration between headspace Schools, a locally established First Nations Reference Group, young people, and key community stakeholders.
The resulting Our Way Our Say program aims to increase social and emotional competencies of middle and senior school aged young people in the elements of Water (introduction to mental health and wellbeing), Land (belonging, inclusion, and connectedness), Fire (understanding and managing emotions) and Air (voice and empowerment), then combine these learnings in Strengthening our Spirits (help seeking and suicide prevention).
headspace Schools were commissioned to co-design a resource which supported young people to build the skills required to help seek using a development process that facilitated local ownership, knowledge, and experience.
The first phase of this project resulted in the production of a video containing local images encompassing the ideas and strategies which First Nations Peoples identified as ‘Strengthening Our Spirits’. The video clearly contained local messages, but further work was needed for young people to develop the necessary mental health literacies required to implement the help seeking messages of the resource.
Phase two of the project was to co-design a training program to complement the video. The program needed to be culturally appropriate and evidence informed to explicitly teach young people the micro skills needed to seek help at times of crisis (suicide prevention), whilst also building skills in the areas of mental health promotion, prevention, and early intervention which were required to facilitate suicide prevention.
To ensure cultural and clinical safety, the development and design process was a collaboration between headspace Schools, a locally established First Nations Reference Group, young people, and key community stakeholders.
The resulting Our Way Our Say program aims to increase social and emotional competencies of middle and senior school aged young people in the elements of Water (introduction to mental health and wellbeing), Land (belonging, inclusion, and connectedness), Fire (understanding and managing emotions) and Air (voice and empowerment), then combine these learnings in Strengthening our Spirits (help seeking and suicide prevention).
Biography
Michele Oliphant has worked in the Northern Territory for over 20 years in the youth, wellbeing, and education sectors. Since joining headspace Schools in 2017, she has worked with many schools and communities to achieve their vision for improving the social and emotional wellbeing outcomes of their students, staff, and community members in an inclusive and culturally responsive way.
Michele has a passion for the development of place-based approaches, focussing on achieving the best outcomes for all young people and for supporting an equitable, community driven approach to delivering wellbeing and suicide prevention services to all schools.
