We can teach our children happiness. Photo / Robert Kneschke, 123rf, File
We can teach our children happiness. Photo / Robert Kneschke, 123rf, File
OPINION
Health services are overwhelmed. Schools are left to pick up the pieces with a jigsaw of inconsistent and different or intermittent programmes and interventions that deliver mixed results.
Inaction and indifference are not options, nor is repeating the same interventions that leave children and families helpless.
The Government respondedwell to support for business managers and leaders and their mental health last year. The Auckland Business Chamber and EMA launched firststeps.nz in Auckland to an overwhelming response. In a little over six months, more than 75,000 self-help resources have been downloaded; 71,000 people have visited the site; 1300 emergency helpline calls managed; 550 funding applications for specialist help approved; and 394 wellbeing professionals and 59 organisations brought on board.
It's a game-changer, the resources are valued, relevant, and in keen daily demand.
Business leaders, managers and owners are talking openly about being overwhelmed by anxiety, fears, frustrations, avoidance behaviours, debilitating stress, sleeplessness and bad behaviour from alcohol and drug consumption to hitting out at those who matter most.
Our team has searched internationally for the best programmes operating today to change the odds for our children.
We have identified MindUP as having the potential to provide a long-term solution for our nation and equip our future nation builders for life.
We want it piloted now in 20 schools nationwide and have a proposal ready to share. We will be knocking on doors for an opportunity to be heard. Silence is not a response we can accept.
A MindUP programme trial warrants backing and resources to assess its impact and value to the New Zealand situation and school curriculum. It is an idea whose day has come to our shores as we cannot keep promulgating failure. It is a life and death issue for our country now and we must do better to change the outcomes.
Resilience and mental well-being do not just happen but lifelong skills can be taught with the right expertise and sustained support.
It starts with us, at home, in the community and at school to teach and promote positive social and functional behaviours and emotional competence and make it integral to education, ranked as seriously as reading, writing and maths, social and intellectual intelligence – and analytical, investigative, and digital capabilities.
We want a nation of happy, optimistic, socially and intellectually intelligent Kiwi kids willing, able and excited and confident that they have the life lessons to be resilient so they live their best life – come what may.
Our investigations into the success of MindUP show it is a response we could activate now and evolve a long-term solution for New Zealand.
MindUP, an evidence-based programme for children aged 3-14, is a pathway with proven pedagogy to transform the way we teach, learn and live in New Zealand.
Founded by actress Goldie Hawn in 2003 and developed by neuroscience, education, mindfulness, and psychology experts, MindUP fosters the development of mental fitness and well-being of children, educators and parents.
The Goldie Hawn Foundation has been rolling out the MindUP initiative since 2003. Photo / Fox Studios, File
Operating in 14 countries, it has positively impacted nearly 7 million children and trained more than 175,000 teachers, providing essential knowledge and tools to manage stress, regulate emotions and face the challenges of the 21st century with resilience.
We can bring it into New Zealand schools with the full support of the MindUP organisation and have access to proven resources and processes used around the world and adapted to distinct communities, cultures and value systems.
MindUP uses a train-the-trainer system and has the modules available to introduce the pilot in schools in our country, as part of our national recovery and build-back-better ethos and vision.
We can run the trial, under the guidance of the Goldie Hawn Foundation, to ensure it fits our context, requirements, and budget, and test its efficacy and its benefit to providing children with lifelong skills for happiness. We'll teach children happiness.
Michael Barnett. Photo / Supplied
As a programme encouraging and enabling children to thrive with a whole-of-school approach that promotes shared values, it can be tailored to include and respect cultural diversity, and invite involvement of the wider school community and family.
Kids love it. Teachers love it. Parents love it. And the research shows it delivers.
The mental health of children and young people is our most precious resource to build a better world. Just as we value workplace cultures that nurture people and their wellbeing, we need to put wellbeing at the very core of our education, social and relationship systems.
Businesses, the Government, and communities need to act urgently and decisively to help children develop the mental fitness necessary to thrive in school, work and life.
Our future as a nation depends on it. We have a responsibility to ensure this is not a lost generation. Cassandra's life must be more than a statistic. We must save our children.
• Michael Barnett is Project Director at Auckland Business Chamber.
