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I love this inspiring example of perseverance and “deliberate practice” (that stretches you beyond your current level).  I first read about Shizuka Arakawa in Geoff Colvin’s book: “Talent Is Overrated”:

A study of figure skaters found that sub-elite skaters spent lots of time working on the jumps they could already do, while skaters at the highest levels spent more time on the jumps they couldn’t do, the kind that ultimately win Olympic medals and involved lots of falling down before they’re mastered….Landing on your butt 20,000 times is where great performance comes from.

Shizuka Arakawa won gold at 24 – she had been training as a skater since age five.  Winning the gold requires flawless performance of moves that the rest of us would consider simply impossible. Arakawa’s specialty was something called a layback Ina Bauer – bending backward almost double with the feet pointing in opposite directions–leading into a three-jump combination. Perfecting such moves requires huge quantities of practice, and falling down during much of it. For Arakawa it took nineteen years….[and] at least twenty thousand derriere impacts on an unforgiving surface.

We can all applaud the dedication of Shizuka Arakawa – yet her example should make all of use reconsider what we are capable of.

 

Here’s a couple of links to give you more information:

Explanation of the special Ina Bauer move: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC8t3nOgVtU

Shizuka Arakawa’s 2006 Olympic performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8g0ghQMLORI

A friend of mine is starting up a mentoring service for processionals who are chasing “career narratives” (i.e. seeking the next promotion, the car, the house, seniority, glory etc.) to the point where their lives are becoming wretched.  Sure it’s is good to aspire, but as Paul Dolan suggests in his new book “Happy Ever After: Escaping The Myth of The Perfect Life”, it may be that some people continue to pursue career success even when the returns are diminishing – and that  the extra workload and stress from chasing the incremental £10k can destroy a work-life balance or even impact on mental and physical wellbeing.

While researching this context, I came across “Hustle Porn”.  So what it “Hustle Porn”? Well it tends to be in the form of YouTube channels operated by “successful entrepreneurs” urging would-be followers to work like crazy… for all hours… to make their ventures a success.

Now of course some entrepreneurs do succeed because they have great perseverance in the face of challenges and setbacks – so that they outreach their competitors… yet blindly urging young people to exclude every facet of their lives other then the pursuit of their venture, so that they are working 80, 100 or 120 hour per week,  does start to cause problems.

Such “hustle focus” can cause burnout, adrenal problems and mental health problems – and in fact the work focus can destroy family and friendship support networks so that the impacts of such a lifestyle are accelerated.

Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian has recently highlighted the trend for entrepreneurs and employees within the high tech industry to overwork – resulting in deteriorating physical and mental health  – often drive by Hustle Porn.

And worse, it seems that Hustle Porn is addictive to its followers.  In this blog I am not going to mention the high profile “Champions of Hustle” – these guys are monetising their online followers well enough without my help.   But awareness of this phenomenon, and its downside, is at least a start – colleagues, friends and family who are hooked on Hustle Porn need to realise where this type of life is heading… and to change; and give up the Hustle Porn.

So, yes – put energy onto your business venture – but at the same time don’t define you success in just business terms – think about success in terms of the life you want to lead… and the time you want to spend on non-work experiences.  Always ensure you have time set aside for hobbies, exercise and socialising.  Put a priority on sleep.

You might consider introducing mediation into your routine – so that your time at work  will become more focussed; and  yet you are able to set that focus aside in other parts of your week.  You might find that 10 or 15 minutes each day will make a much bigger change to your effectiveness if you practice mediation  rather then watching Hustle Porn on YouTube. So reinvest the time spent on Hustle Porn.

In the last few weeks there have been some thought provoking issues in the media – from the role of social media in causing self-harming to the prevalence of mental health problems in students.

NHS Digital has released figures to show that the number of children (aged 9 to 17) admitted to hospital with self-harming injuries rose by 12% in just one year. We have blamed social media for  interfering with elections, radicalising impressionable young people and reducing our self-worth  (as users compare themselves with the idyllic profiles of others) – yet social media seems it is playing a clear role in driving the growth in self-harming also.

The Daily Mail quoted Dr Hayley Van Zwanenbug from the Priory’s Oxford Wellbeing Centre as saying that social medial was leaving children feeling physically and socially inadequate.  Psychotherapist Julie Lynn-Eves wrote “Every day I see young patients left  in torment by images on social media.” Julie linked the rise in teenage self-harming to the phenomenon of social media and its emphasis on perfection and access to images of self-harming.

Now there are many complex issues here – including low self-esteem, and need to have some control or even a feeling of being successful at something. Yet, reading through the pieces it seems that the failure of the government and NHS to properly resource CAMHS (the child and adolescent mental health service) to address the teenage mental health tsunami is now being repeated by the inadequate provision of services to address self-harming.

In other media pieces there was news that the number of freshers arriving at university who declare a mental illness is up by 73% over  the last four years.  Of course, as I previously wrote in “Mental health in education – specialist and complex  infrastructure required!”, not only is this a sign of an increase in such problems, but it is also a sign that young people are more open about such issues and that the associated stigma is reducing.  Further, it is now clear that Universities have a duty to support such students;  and must not discriminate against them or allocate assignments in a way that exacerbates such problems.  The response to this news must be that is essential for our universities engage with the new frameworks and standards being set in pace… and we should look at the reasons why our young people are demonstrating such conditions… and the role of social media?

Finally, I noticed that the University of Reading had published results from a study to show that teenage depression impacts adversely memory.  It’s like a quadruple whammy – we know that depression reduces motivation, increases absence and make concentration difficult – and now it turns out that the ability to memorise learning is also impacted. Tasmin Ford of the Royal College of Psychiatrists was quoted in The Times as saying that a single year of depression in the years from 14 to 18 can completely swing a person’s life trajectory.  While Tom Madders from Young Minds said that it was still far too hard for young people to access the mental health support from the NHS.

So with regard to support for adolescent mental health problems or support for those who are self-harming… it looks like we must press the government to do more.  I realise that no political party wants to head in to an election promising tax rises – but the news that our public services are so underfunded is not unrelated to the fact that income tax rates are lower than at any point in my working life.

Back in December I wrote “Mindfulness for school pupils – improved wellbeing and better grades”. (Here)

So, I was delighted to see that education secretary Damian Hinds has announced a trial to teach mindfulness within 370 schools . The trial is being led by the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families in partnership with University College London and it will run until 2021. The trial will involve pupils being taught muscle relaxation techniques, breathing exercises and mindfulness.

“As a society, we are much more open about our mental health than ever before, but the modern world has brought new pressures for children,” says  Hinds.

It’s also worth noting that recent research conducted by University College London discovered that teenage girls are twice as likely as teenage boys to exhibit symptoms of depression due to social media.

At the time of writing I have not been able to check out the outcome measures to be used  in the trial – but I while I am sure the trial will investigate the impact of mindfulness upon levels of mental health problems… I hope that it will seek to measure the impact of the trial on academic results also.

Further, it would be very interesting to see if the level of social media usage is reduced – or if the negative impact of social media is reduced by mindfulness  (…I would imagine it might – but this trial could enable us to find out).  If social medial use is causal in the development of anxiety and depression;  then such research would start to give us a real steer on how we can control social media and reduce its impact on the mental health of young people.

 

 

 

 

Last August I wrote about the Paul Stoltz’s Adversity Quotient: “Adversity Quotient – and “leveraging micro adversities”,  here.

Many of us are familiar with Intelligence Quotient (IQ) and Emotional Quotient (EQ), yet in 1997, Paul Stoltz introduced a new concept – Adversity Quotient (AQ), which predicts how well someone withstands adversity and his/her ability to triumph over it… and research has shown that measurement of AQ is a better index in achieving success than IQ, education or even social skills.

This week I saw this piece by Jan Bruce in Forbes Magazine on a similar concept: “Resilience Quotient” (RQ)… a measurement of a company’s workforce… to predict how a company will respond to challenges;   here.

Jan paints a honest, but though provoking picture of corporate life:

• This decade marks the most radical disruption of the workplace in our lifetimes.  The confluence of big data, information transparency and innovative business models compels organizations of every size to change at head-spinning speed.
• In the next few years, as artificial intelligence and cloud computing spread to every corner of every business, the pace of change will only accelerate.
• Organizations are also changing fast, scrambling the old order.
• Five generations are active in the workforce. Old organization charts give way to temporary teams. Remote and on-site employees work together in real time.
• Innovation, emotional intelligence and so-called “soft skills” like communication and creativity are the new competitive edge.

“This exciting new world also threatens a significant human cost. The tsunami of changes has swept away old barriers between work and life. … We expect instant response from ourselves and others. Our powerful technology has, paradoxically, made us more stressed than ever. And stress is killing us... Stressed-out people suffer low productivity and high rates of depression, absenteeism and presenteeism.”

So… what to do?… Well we need build up the resilience of the workforce… but first there are  a few other things to set in place.  (I have added to and reframed some of Jan’s recommendations.):

First: Look at what is stressing staff out and see if you can remove or reduce the stressors: “for example by lowering noise levels in a work area or instituting flexible hours to alleviate stressful commutes”.

Second: Hire resilient people (it is easy to test!).

Third: Change you executive culture. To quote Jan: “It’s especially important for executives to practice resilience skills, not only to manage the high stress of their jobs but to affirm to all employees that yes, resilience is valued and respected at the top. I’m astonished at the number of executives who wear their burnout as a badge of honour, especially because the most successful business leaders consciously manage their stressful lives. The more leaders grow in empathy, focus, self-confidence, positivity and other resilience skills, the better they perform.”

Fourth: Now you can go on to work with staff to develop their own resilience.  At Carina Sciences we have recently released the first product version of the Rezl toolbox that includes a module and a meditation to help people to deal with stress and pressure – including practical steps and “mindfulness based cognitive therapy” techniques to avoid becoming overwhelmed with stress  – so that staff are better able to respond thoughtfully.

Jan highlights the need to develop learnable skills like emotional control, empathy and impulse control that increase resilience – and you will recognise that Mindfulness is a proven way to establish such skills.

Mindfulness is about focus and awareness.  Our Rezl app practices Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) which has been developed as programme to change the way that we react – reducing unhelpful though-pathways and establishing new habits that serve us better.

Research shows that MBCT helps people to deal with stress and pressure; it improves concentration… reducing mistakes and increasing productivity; it makes people more open and more empathetic; give better emotional regulation (control of emotions); and allows a more thoughtful response reducing impulsive behaviour; it improves self-esteem and life satisfaction; it reduces anxiety and depression; and in a change management situation, it enables people to embrace change….positively.

Here is a brief description of MBCT:

• MBCT is about increasing our awareness of the current moment in a non-judgemental way… as judgements can increase the emotions that we attach to an experience.
• It makes us aware of how much of our consciousness is automated and how little attention we pay to our experiences and our responses.
• It increases the ability to focus and to avoid distractions.
• It gives us an understanding of how our “emotional brain” can overwhelm us at times.  It is about allowing the authority of our “thinking brain” so that we have better “emotional regulation”.
• It enables us to reduce rumination about the past and anxieties about the future.
• MBCT allows us to use our “thinking brain” to recognise triggers and to set them aside so that we are not overwhelmed by our emotions. … and this empowers us so that we increase our self-confidence and our self-esteem.   This focus enables a “less emotional response” to pain… stresses… and worries.
• Finally there is the concept of self-compassion… so that we are not so hard on ourselves and we increase our feeling of self-worth.

So,these are my four steps that will enable your company to increase its RQ –  so that it is ready to take up the challenges of the 21^st century.

At some point during our lifetime, one in four of us will experience a common mental health disorder such as depression and anxiety; and research shows us that three out of four  of such cases have begun by the time the sufferer is eighteen.   So, doing the maths, that means that around three out of every eighteen-year-olds has already encountered at least one episode of anxiety and or depression.  That’s nearly 20% – and unfortunately the number of young people who do suffer is getting bigger each year.   So if you are over eighteen you may have already experienced such problems, but even if not,  we all have friends and relatives who have such problems.

When people experience such an episode of conditions like anxiety and depression,  they establish “thought pathways” that spiral downward. So that in the future, when they encounter another “trigger” situation they slide down the same pathway… reinforcing it… and so on – making further episodes more and more likely.

And in many cases the “trigger” doesn’t have to be something big – it could be some relatively minor setback that triggers thoughts leading to anxiety or depression.  The good news is that  in recent years, mindfulness has been used to train our  “attention” –  so that we are more aware of our reactions, thoughts and emotions.. and so we can become more resilient to  common mental health issues such as anxiety and depression.  This way we can avoid being triggered and so become less susceptible to such episodes.

So let’s go back to the 20% of eighteen-year-olds who have incubated as problem – why are our children more likely than ever to develop such problems?  – is it the way we raise them? – or is it their access to social media so that they are constantly comparing themselves with the  idealised version of other and reducing their own self esteem?

At Carina Sciences we are worried about this trend – we want to build-up  the resilience in children and young people so  that we reduce the possibility or severity of conditions like anxiety and depression.  Yet using mindfulness to build the resilience of kids is a challenge –  how to engage them? How to use language that they will respond to?  We are thinking hard about how we can work with the 12 to 18 age group so that we can reduce the possibility of establishing common mental health disorders that they may carry into adulthood.

Yet there are other types of intervention that can build resilience, self-confidence and self-esteem.   I saw this  this piece in The Telegraph to say, that this month, the Department of Education will be sending  teachers and parents lists of activities for children to complete, which aim to build “character, drive and resilience”.  Here.

The Telegraph tells us that “Among the activities children will be encouraged to do are painting a self-portrait, posting a letter, going on a hike, planning and cooking a meal and flying a kite.  The Department for Education said it hoped the scheme would teach children traits such as “drive and tenacity, sticking at the task at hand [and] understanding how to work towards long term goals when reward might be a long way off in the future”.

Education Secretary Damian Hinds said: “I regularly hear from teachers that it’s important that children have the chance to try things out, to get a taste of the world around them, to see and do things that they wouldn’t normally do, or go to places they wouldn’t normally go. Experience is a great teacher and can equip children with valuable skills that prepare for any challenges life may throw at them. What’s on the inside – someone’s character, drive, resilience, and the ability to stick to a goal – is just as important as their academic achievements.”

Matt Hyde, Chief Executive of the Scouts, said: “We know how much young people get out of enrichment activities like these: broadening their experiences, having fun and developing skills for life. Not everything can be taught in a classroom, so it’s great to see Department for Education recognising the value of extra-curricular activities and encouraging young people to build confidence, resilience and get involved in their communities as well.”

This seems like a great initiative – but once again it sees responsibility being loaded onto teachers – who have their SAT measures to worry about.  The primary age key stage 1 and key stage 2  SATs now focus on a newly narrowed prescribed curriculum to ensure consistency across the school network – IMO the law of unintended consequences means, that to maximise their SAT-performance, schools have now dropped most of the subjects  not on the curriculum – and this includes art, drama, dance and other creative subjects. Shame.  [NB: We are similarly expecting the “SAT focused schools” to solve the obesity crisis by exercising our kids. ]

I have always thought that besides measuring academic performance (- it is easy to build a league table of exam results)  we should also publish measures on wellbeing (physical and mental health) and even behaviour (including honesty, respect, politeness etc) – i.e. “what sort of kids are we producing in our schools?”  This would mean that schools would focus equally on academic performance, wellbeing and behaviour.  I am not alone. Sir Anthony Seldon, former Master of Wellington College has called for the Government to introduce a “wellbeing league table for schools”, in order to tackle the current mental health “crisis” in young people; and went onto say  that the Government was being “criminally negligent” in its failure to take wellbeing seriously. See here.

However, putting aside my worry that this is another issue being dumped on our “SAT focused schools”, this new initiative does at least show an emerging awareness of the need to build character and resilience in our young people. I hope that this new found belief is translated into more money for CAMHS.

One more thought, it turns out that “grit/staying power”, a key to success,  is developed though children engaging in extracurricular activities – yet there is a big division here between what rich and poor parents can afford (in terms of time and money) to allow their kids to do such activities;  maybe we could find some money to enable poorer children to engage in long-term extracurricular activities – like music, sports, dance, drama?

Most of us spend time and effort preparing for the Christmas and New Year holiday – for those who are Christian it is a special time and even those who are not religious may be hoping to catch up with friends and family and to enjoy spending time with our children… and even to party a little.

Yet there are challenges and stresses to be overcome also –

• We may have set high expectations of how we want things to be
• We may be up late preparing food or gifts – or even shopping until the last minute
• We may find it hard to turn-off from work – and find ourselves worrying about the office rather than enjoying the break
• We may disappointed when friends or family are unable to visit as planned
• Or we may find that time with extended family raises old arguments and issues – especially with the truth drug flowing freely
• It may be that we feel trapped in having to invite the same people and do the same things… when we would rather be doing otherwise
• Or it may be that we are miffed when greetings or even presents are not reciprocated… or if “thank-yous” are not received.

So Christmas and New Year really is a time when we may need our resilience – to help us to cope with challenges, stresses, annoyances, insults (….real or perceived)…  so do try to respond mindfully and with patience.  Try to avoid reacting emotionally or becoming overwhelmed.  Just observe how others behave or react …and try to be empathetic:– “Wow , they must be very sensitive to some issue to react in such and such a way”.

If we react with our emotional brains then we will usually make things worse – and we may prevent a tiny squall from just blowing away.  Why pour gasoline onto a small fire?

So plan lots of things to do – get out and about to go on walks; or to visit different people – don’t get stuck at home going round the same old issues with the same old people. And don’t over-do things….  get some rest and relaxation .  Then try and carry this though in to your weekends and breaks in 2019.

I hope you take care of your resilience to have a safe, happy, healthy and productive year in 2019.  Take care of yourselves.

I was in the car recently chatting with my son and his school friends and wondering about the value of the lashings of homework that they are given.  It turns out that maths is a subject where students gain understanding from repetition… as “the penny drops”; so extra maths practice must be valuable.  Yet much of their homework is to research facts – surely it would be better to just give the kids the facts and then spend time discussing the background and the corollary of such facts… that way the pupils would engage more… and retain more.

We also talked about what was happening during the school day –  six hours of lessons.  I have long suspected that, like any PowerPoint presentation audience, school kids actually retain perhaps only 20% of what is taught to them.  I am pretty sure that if the pupils increased their concentration then the curriculums could be taught a lot faster.

Now, I used to work with a sales team manager who wouldn’t let his sales execs claim any commission until they had passed a test that demonstrated their product knowledge.  If they failed they could mug-up and repeat it in a week – the process very rarely went into a third week.  Yet suppose we could get GCSE school pupils to really focus during their lessons?  In jest suggested to the lads, that maybe, they could have some lessons in the morning and a test at lunch time – those who pass can go home and those who fail can repeat the morning’s lessons over.  I suggested this would make their level of concentration in the morning much higher that we currently achieve over six hours.  NB: Although the boys were keen to have such a scheme I don’t expect this will ever happen.

Yet as an alternative, Mindfulness is shown to increase the ability to focus and concentrate – and also to avoid distractions that produce errors.  So how about spending 10minutes per day on mindfulness in our schools?  That’s about 3% of the school day to make sense of the other 97%.

Well the “Mindfulness in Schools Project” is pushing for just this.   They say that mindfulness interventions are popular with pupils. Mindfulness in schools delivers benefits in wellbeing and mental health (dealing with mood, anxieties and stress especially at exam time); yes, it improves concentration and cognitions – reducing distractions and improving memory; it enables students to have better emotional regulation and boosts self-esteem which is a key for driving a growth mind-set; and there is evidence to show that behaviour improves. Plus, we already know that mental health is a big challenged in adolescence.

It’s a double whammy – we reduce mental health problems which are growing in our adolescents – and we improved their learning at the same time.  This is such a good deal I expect it will never come to pass!

The Mindfulness in Schools Project provide link to  paper by Professor Katherine Weare of the University of Southampton who reviewed the research in support of the claims above (here) – affirming the positive impact of Mindfulness on depression, anxiety, stress and the avoidance of self-harming and eating disorders; and the improvement of cognition and concentration… leading to better grades.  It seems a no-brainer.

This “double effect” – helping to avoid mental health problems and improving academic results – is demonstrated in this piece from the Guardian (here):

Lewis Dinsdale the head teacher of English Martyrs Catholic Primary School in Litherland  says,  “I’s not just helping with children’s mental health but improving their academic performance too.” He described how some children used to have panic attacks when sitting Sats. One girl had been physically sick on her test paper. He was critical of Ofsted inspectors for not being more tuned in to the benefits of mindfulness. “It’s frustrating because it isn’t a box that they have to tick,” he said.

Jason Steele  is the founder of The Raise the Youth Foundation in Bolton, a non-profit independent school, teaches children who have been excluded from the education system. Steele said children at his school were probably among the most difficult young people to care for because they were used to pushing people away. Mindfulness, though, had built their self-esteem and was now a hugely positive force in their lives. “It’s helping them to engage with the present rather than worrying about the future or blaming the past for everything,” he said.  Many of the teenagers have missed years of schooling; most have never sat exams before.  Steele  said that before mindfulness became part of the curriculum, they would do everything they could to avoid taking tests. “They would just run around school slapping people, calling them Muppets, ripping paper, just really low-level behaviour,” he said. Steel says that this type of disruptive behaviour has not gone away, but it has tailed off. “It happened because they were scared of failure, but showing them how to do meditation is helping them learn about relaxation, it’s given them a confidence they never had.”

So it makes sense that pupils suffering less mental health issues – and so experiencing less absence – and who are more able to focus and to learn demonstrate improved  wellbeing and academic results.

I have been reading an excellent report produced by law firm Pincent Mason on “Mental health in Education” (– I have put a link at the bottom of this post).

The Pincent Mason report rightly picks up on the stance adopted by universities minster Sam Gyimah; who advised all university  vice chancellors that the government regards the prioritisation of student wellbeing and mental health as “non-negotiable” .  Yet, as I discussed an earlier blog post, it is clear that some universities and colleges are yet to accept that they must show leadership on this topic –  and indeed many still regard “coping with the move to college” as some kind of character test!   See here https://carinasciences.com/2018/07/08/student-mental-health-must-be-top-priority-universities-minister-sam-gyimah-says-issue-requires-serious-leadership-from-vice-chancellors/

However, the thrust of the paper from Pincent Mason is that the requirement for higher educational establishments to discharge their “duty of care” to students is both specialist and complex.

It means that they must look at their obligations to provide pastoral support and care for all students together with the provision of wellbeing and educational support for students diagnosed with, or declaring,  a  mental health problem .

So universities will need to implement staff training (for teaching and support staff… including staff at libraries or halls etc) so that they are aware of the signs of mental disorders and are able to formally escalate cases to the appropriate services.  The irony here is that it appears that the more training that is delivered then the higher the” reasonable expectation”  of staff performance… and hence the greater possibility of negligence.  The solution to this is to ensure that there are regular compliance audits so that the universities can show a record ensuring reasonable compliance.  Staff unable to conform to the standards cannot be allowed to deal with students… no exceptions.

Further, antidiscrimination laws mean that it is essential that learning support is given to students with mental health problems.

I think that it is also worth mentioning that the ways in which course assignments are set for students may be causal in the onset of, or the resurfacing of, some mental health conditions in some cases –  and therefore institutions may have to look  at alternative course practises to avoid stresses from workload – e.g. perhaps breaking down larger assignment in to smaller discrete pieces of work that can be accomplished over time rather than setting one large assignment.  I expect it is only a matter of time before we will see a student who is unable to continue at college suggesting that the mental health problems they suffered were caused or worsened by the behaviours and practices of a university or its staff?

The report shows that there is a complex list of laws applicable to this area – but they do serve as a useful checklist for the issues to be considered – the duty of care, the contract with students, the confidentiality ( – there is talk of agreements to notify parents  of problems), equality issues, human rights, health and safety, data protection and even the coroner’s act so that university understand the requirement to provide information and testimony in suicide cases.

My own feeling is that each institution requires “specialist unit” to deal with the infrastructure standards  and the processes required to meet this function:

1. To set in place standards and procedures to ensure compliance with the best practices and statutory requirements – e.g. reporting, escalation, assessment and ongoing case reviews
2. Provision support services for mental health issues and  referral to local services where appropriate
3. Provision of learning support for those declaring or being diagnosed with mental health conditions
4. Steps to ensure the any such students involved in disciplinary processing are not discriminated against
5. Staff training to introduce procedures for recording and escalating signs, concerns, behaviours or discussions with students to the university services for ongoing assessment and management
6. Teaching staff training to look at how teaching practices may be adjusted to minimise stress or the developments of mental health conditions
7. To oversee intervention and support services;
8. Internal audit  to monitor to ensure compliance by staff and departments to ensure standards are met and processes are followed
9. Participation in national initiatives such as the scrutiny from the government and regulator (The Office for Students). The forthcoming development of the new University Mental Health Charter, backed by universities minister Sam Gyimah, is a project that institutions must engage with.
10. Governance with relevant external expertise to monitor the performance of these services.

Wow – it’s a large piece of work. If this going to be effective then the “compliance piece” (8 above)   and the “governance piece” (10 above) are essential.

With such a need for a specialist team it is not surprising that some universities are grouping together to provide for such a function:

Greater Manchester will be the first place in the country to establish a dedicated centre to help support higher education students with mental health needs thanks to a new partnership between the region’s four universities and the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership, the body that oversees the area’s £6bn devolved health and social care budget. https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/greater-manchester-universities-to-offer-more-mental-health-support-to-students/

The Manchester initiative represents a good start in proving assessments and wellbeing support (item 2 above) – yet it needs to go much much further.   I would like to see it becoming responsible for establishing  procedures  and  standards  for all university departments and staff within the group; proving awareness and training services…  and, most importantly, monitoring compliance and performance across the participating universities.

There is so much to do…. because it has not been tackled before!

…

You can download or read a summary of the excellent report produced by law firm Pincent Mason on “Mental health in Education” here. https://www.out-law.com/en/articles/2018/october/duty-to-care-student-mental-health-legal-implications-universities/

A few days ago I was surfing radio channels and I came across a discussion between Andrew Marr and the author Yuval Noah Harari on the BBC Radio Four programme “Start the Week”.    Harari is an historian;  the author of the bestselling book “Sapiens”.  He has a new book out entitled “21 Lessons for the 21^st Century” and so hence his appearance. https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/play/m0000m7b

I crashed into the discussion as Harari was describing the risks of AI and bio engineering – perhaps allowing some humans to develop more powerful brains … and the continuation of the trend for us to allow algorithms to make more of our choices:– who we date, what we buy, what we watch… or maybe who we will vote for?   Harari said he was not setting out a prophecy but he was highlighting the possible dangers of such developments. He suggested that we should consider choosing our governments based on their competence to address such issues. Interesting.

What really peaked my interest was Harari‘s belief that most of what we are teaching our kids will be irrelevant to them in their lives  (…I expect he accepts that numeracy and literacy are a given) – so Marr asked him what we should be teaching; to which he replied that our children are destined to navigate a world where things will keep on changing very quickly… much quicker than ever before…  and that they may well be required to reinvent themselves every decade.  To thrive in such a world he suggested that our children will need to develop “emotional intelligence” and “mental balance”.

There are quite a few ideas in that last paragraph.  Firstly, things really are changing faster than before.  My grandfather trained in a trade and worked for one employer until retirement.  yet I have already changed career a number of times.   If someone is hired on the line at Nissan today – then who’s to say how long that job will last… or even the factory… or even Nissan?  (There used to be a large Kodak factory in Hertfordshire… but Kodak is no more… nor Woolies, BHS or House of Fraser… Etc).  So the half-life of jobs, plants and companies must be reducing at a pace.

Second – “emotional intelligence” – our Generation Z children seem to be very low on transferable interpersonal skills.  One of Carina Sciences’ early ideas was to provide an app to improve the emotional intelligence of teenagers – maybe we should revive that project!

Thirdly – our children will need “mental balance”… mindfulness… an ability to take such change in their stride – …sounds like an essential attribute.  At Carina we have recently completed the “toolbox” for our REZL app – one of the tools is a tutorial and meditation to help people to deal with change in their lives – at work, at home or in relationships.  People are often slow to accept the inevitability of change and the impossibility of having things remain the same… they need to depersonalise the “change initiative” so that they can let go of anger and disillusionment – especially as skills, processes and infrastructure in which they have invested are set aside – and to keep in mind that the change does not mean that their efforts to date are not appreciated …it’s more that the future requires something different.  Lastly, change situations can also cause anxiety… “what will happen in the future?… to me?”.   So  in a world where our children are to face regular and disruptive change they will be well served by “mental balance” and a mindful approach.  If that is where we are heading we had better get ready!