Today is World Mental Health Day and its central theme is:
“Young People and mental health in a changing world”
– which helps us to focus on the conflicting pressures and issues that young people are having to face at an increasingly early age. The charity, Young Minds, highlights a number of disturbing trends:
- 1 in 10 children have a diagnosable mental health disorder – that’s about 3 children in every classroom
- Half of all mental health problems manifest by the age of 14 – 75% by the age of 24
- In 2015, suicide was the most common cause of death for both boys (17% of all deaths) and girls (11%) aged between 5 and 19
- 3 in 4 children with a diagnosable mental health condition do not get access to the support they need
UK Government Mental Health Initiatives Announced
But today’s announcement by the UK government is now beginning to recognise the emerging crises in young people’s mental healthcare. A number of pioneering measures will include:
- The appointment of the world’s first Minister for Suicide Prevention
- 8,000 mental health specialists being trained to work in schools
- Teachers being trained to carry out wellbeing assessments designed to spot potential issues in children as young as four
- Every school having a senior staff member responsible for mental health
- A “State of the Nation” report on young people’s mental health will be published annually
All of these aspects are part of a £1.9 billion initiative to transform the approach to mental health in schools.
The CoolFire Approach to Positive Mental Health
CoolFire is very different to many approaches to positive mental health and Emotional Intelligence. By integrating a number of established therapeutic disciplines, CoolFire has both an immediate and sustainable impact on the way young people and teachers/staff feel, think and act.
The CoolFire Approach creates an original framework of Positive Inputs that changes many widely-held perspectives on the interaction between Mind, Body and Feelings.
Many approaches are based on the dominant role of the brain – every action commencing with a thought. But CoolFire views every thought as first being motivated by an emotion, a feeling. Hence, if you consciously change the feeling, you then consciously change the thought – and therefore – consciously change the action.
One of the central themes of CoolFire is enabling you to consciously change your initial feeling – at any time – in any situation – as you choose to.
Here’s just one example drawn from the CoolFire Approach that can positively change the way you feel – in under one minute!
A Sideways Figure of Eight
60 – 0 – in 30 seconds. Simply hold the middle two fingers together of your leading hand – then place on the middle of your forehead. Then imagine a figure of eight – on its side – like the sign for infinity. Now trace this shape on a continuous loop across your forehead in a wide sweep. Keep this going for at least 30 seconds – a bit longer if you wish.
This has the effect of creating Oxytocin – that neutralises Cortisol – the hormone that creates the feeling of being “hard-wired” on an everyday basis.
Over 7,500 young people (ages 3-18+) and 3,500 staff have experienced The CoolFire Effect over the last five years.
Find out more on how you can use CoolFire to create a whole-school emotionally intelligent culture as the key to long-term effective teaching and learning.