Transcript spotting problems and initial responses

Bill Penson
Teacher Fellow/Senior Lecturer in Mental Health
Faculty of Health & Social Sciences
What we will cover today Models for understanding anxiety and depression
 Some signs for anxiety & depression
 Top-tips on how best to respond
students
There are students that…
1. Have mental health problems before they arrive
that are not currently causing them a problem
2. Have mental health problems before they arrive
that are currently a problem
3. Develop poor mental health while they are
studying with us.
4. International students- a different category?
What we won’t cover Diagnosis
 Treatments
 Referrals to other agencies/services
 Anger
Key principles
 Mental health is an active field of debate with knowledge


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claims that are challenged
Mental health problems do not mean a person is dangerous
and unpredictable
A person in distress is a person first.
There are a range of experiences that people might have
which don’t cause them distress but seem unusual to
others.
When we talk about ‘them’ we are talking about ‘us’.
 Mental health is experienced along a continuum.
Our areas for concern
Distress
Disturbance
Disability
Locating the experience of distress
event
cognition
physiology
affect
behaviour
environment
Thinking about anxiety
 What makes your students anxious?
 What other things might make them anxious that you
hear little about?
 What do they do when they’re anxious?
What is anxiety? a good friend turned bad!
‘Anxiety is a normal human reaction in times of danger
and stress. It becomes problematic when an
anticipated or imminent threat or pervasive sense of
vulnerability generates relatively long-lasting changes
in mood, body sensations, thinking and behaviour’
(Short ,et al, 2004,p.203).
What is anxiety?
 People can experience anxiety that is below levels for
diagnostic criteria.
 Often there is a mixed picture with anxiety and
depression being experienced together.
 Anxiety often forms part of the experience of other
mental health problems
Labels…..don’t worry about diagnosis just note the range
of anxieties people can have!
OCD
Agoraphobia
PANIC
Social
anxiety &
phobia
Phobia
PTSD
Generalised
Anxiety
Disorder
Health
anxiety
Sexual
dysfunction
Cognitive theory of anxiety
 There is a preoccupation with danger and threat and an
associated ‘underestimation of personal ability to cope’
(oneself is vulnerable).
 Vicious cycles begin & particular ‘symptoms’ of anxiety can
reinforce such cycles.
Wells (1999)
 Once ‘threat thinking’ is activated it structures other
thinking and becomes ‘emotionally hijacked’.
 Perception of danger is biased, so it is perceived when it
does not ‘objectively’ exist. This is why anxiety can sound
irrational to people who don’t share that fear.
Reilly et al (1999)
What helps with anxiety
 Education about anxiety
 Not avoiding the situation that is anxiety
provoking, especially where this will have a
significant impact (spiders & exams)
 Avoiding stimulants
 Self help approaches
 Having healthy coping strategies
 Being listened to
 Having a sense that someone is rooting for you
Depression
What do you notice about students that makes you
think they have a low mood?
Depression- cognitive triad
 This refers to a negative style of thinking that is
typified by the prefixes I am…
 Others are…
 The world is…
 Going back to the diagram earlier though, we also note
the importance of behaviour
Locating the experience of distress
event
cognition
physiology
affect
behaviour
environment
Helping with depression.
 Increased activity
 Increased confidence
 Keep it simple
 Increase positive feelings
 ‘baby steps’
 Physical exercise
 Programmes & timetables
 Anticipate setbacks
More generally: responding helpfully
 The ‘I’ test
 Be interested and empathic
 Be genuine and warm
 Show caring and trustworthiness
 Think about where you have helpful conversations
 Don’t treat mental health/distress as a ‘dirty secret’
 Negotiate goals
 Where possible work on a premise of transparency
 Its hard to be supportive of anyone without giving some time
 Offer the student your support in getting further help
Looking after yourself
 Looking after yourself both models good mental health self
care, and enables you to be ‘there’ for others.
 Sometimes you will hear things that are understandably
troubling- do you have someone who you can talk to about
that in the workplace?
 If you are worried about a student you should get further
advice. You should be worried if any student suggests they
will harm themselves or someone else. You will have to
decide at the time what is the best response.
websites
 http://www.mind.org.uk/
 http://www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/info/positiv
e_steps_for_mental_health.aspx