Building Resilience

in Children and
Young People
Help-Seeking

Teacher Professional
Development
Help-seeking
Why teach help-seeking?

• Help-seeking is a coping strategy that involves seeking

technical, instrumental, social or emotional support
from other people

• Help-seeking behaviour of children and young people is

fundamental to their mental health and wellbeing

• Encouraging and fostering help-seeking behaviours through

school-based programs is one way to improve their
mental health and wellbeing

(Rickwood et al. 2005)

Help-seeking
Help-seeking Patterns
• Young people are more likely to use informal rather than
formal sources of help, even with serious problems such as
suicidal ideation
• Females seek help more readily than males
• Males are more likely to seek help from parents than from
other sources
• Mothers are frequently used as source of help by
adolescents - this challenges assumptions about the
generation divide
• Higher SES and education levels are associated with higher
levels of help-seeking
(Rickwood et al. 2005; Kuhl, Horlick and Morrisey 1997)
Help-seeking
Common Barriers to Help-seeking

• lack of trust in • believing one should

others cope on one’s own
• fear of burdening • lack of knowledge
others about support
• fear that situation services available
will become worse if • inaccessible
known services
• shame • lack of culturally
• embarrassment appropriate services
• guilt
Help-seeking
Help-seeking and Mental Health Problems

• Few young people seek help from formal sources for mental health
problems (Ciarrochi, Deane, Wilson, & Rickwood, 2002; Wilson, Deane, &
Ciarrochi 2005)

• In one Australian study only 2% of 4-16 year olds with mental health
problems had been in touch with a professional service in the previous
6 months (Rickwood et al. 2005)

• In another study between 3 and 13% of children and adolescents with

mental health problems had received professional help in the previous
6 months (Sawyer et al. 2000)

• It is the young people who most need help who are the least likely to
seek it (Lazarus 1991; Rickwood et al. 2005)
Help-seeking
Data from Mental Health Report, 2014

• In 2013, 14,461 young people aged 15-19 years participated in Mission

Australia’s Youth Survey
• The survey used a widely accepted measure of non-specific psychological
distress known as the Kessler 6 (K6) which consists of a six-item scale that
asks about experiences of anxiety and depressive symptoms during the past
four weeks
• The K6 (a widely accepted measure of mental illness) was used to classify
Youth Survey respondents into two groups
o those with a ‘probable serious mental illness’
o those with ‘no probable serious mental illness’
• Just over one fifth (21.2%) of young people aged 15 -19 who responded to the
survey met the criteria for having a probable serious mental illness, ranging
from 19.4% for 19 year olds to 21.5% for 15 year olds
• Females were almost twice as likely as males to meet criteria for having a
probable serious mental illness (26.2% compared to 13.8%)
Mission Australia 2014
Help-seeking
Top concerns – higher distress levels for females
than males
•Females with a •Males with a
probable serious probable serious
mental illness mental illness:
• Coping with stress • Coping with stress
77.9% 54.9%
• School or study
• Depression 49.7%
problems 66.0%
• School or study
• Body image 65.9%
problems 49.4%
• Depression 59.8%
• Body image 32.9%
Mission Australia 2014
Help-seeking
Lower help-seeking comfort for those in most need

• When compared with than those without a probable serious

mental illness, young people with a probable serious mental
illness are substantially more uncomfortable seeking
information, advice or support from:
 Parents (32.8% compared to 10.3%)
 Relatives/family friends: 34.3% compared to 14.5%
 Teachers: 49.6% compared to 29.2%

Friends and the internet are the top sources of information, advice or
support that young people, both with and without a probable serious
mental illness go to

Mission Australia 2014

Help-seeking
Gender and Help-seeking

• 60% of male and female respondents with a probable serious mental

illness felt uncomfortable accessing help from:
 a telephone hotline 69.5%
 a community agency 60.2%
 online counselling services 61.7%

• Males with a probable serious mental illness were more uncomfortable

than females in seeking information, advice and support from:
 friends (18.3% compared to 11.4%)
 the internet (21.7% compared to 13.6%)
 magazines (50.5% compared to 36.2%)

Mission Australia 2014

Help-seeking
Those who most need help are the least likely to
seek it
• Adolescents (16-18) low in emotional awareness
are the least likely to seek help from friends/family
and most likely to refuse help from anyone
• University students who are least skilled at
managing their emotions have the lowest intention
of seeking help from family and friends
• Those with low emotional competence are less
likely to say they would seek help from
professionals

(Ciarrochi et al. 2002)

Help-seeking
Help-Seeking at School

• Research suggests that young people are reluctant to seek

help from teachers (Mazzer & Rickwood 2013; Rickwood et al. 2005)

• Students are more likely to seek help from those teachers

they can trust, and who they find to be friendly and non-
judgmental (Cahill & Coffey 2013; Mazzer & Rickwood 2013; Rickwood et
al. 2005; Rughani, Deane, & Wilson 2011)

Positive relationships can therefore

play a protective role for students
 Help-seeking
Activities in the Help-seeking Lessons aim to assist students to:
Foundation
• Identify people and situations with which they feel a sense of belonging
• Identify situations that feel safe and unsafe
• Identity when and from whom help can be sought
• Practice solving simple interpersonal problems
• Identify ways to care for others, including ways of making and keeping friends
• Discuss the importance of seeking help when dealing with problems that are too big to solve alone
• Practice seeking help from adults and peers
• Identify communication skills that enhance peer support and help-seeking
• Identify a range of conflict resolution and help-seeking strategies to negotiate positive outcomes to
problems
• Discuss the concept of leadership and identify situations where it is appropriate to adopt this role
• Describe and apply strategies that can be used in situations that make them feel uncomfortable or
unsafe
• Identify situations in which they should seek help in working through problems
• Identify a list of trusted people to seek out when needing help
• Normalise and de-stigmatise help-seeking behaviour
• Contribute to groups and teams
• Identify enablers and barriers to achieving goals
• Identify indicators of possible problems in relationships in a range of situations
• Analyse enablers of and barriers to effective verbal, non-verbal and digital communication in help-
seeking situations
• Evaluate, rethink and refine approaches to tasks to take account of unexpected or difficult situations
and safety considerations
• Reflect critically on their emotional responses to challenging situations in a range of contexts
• Formulate plans for effective communication (verbal, non-verbal, digital) to complete complex tasks
• Devise and enact strategies for working in diverse teams, drawing on the skills and contributions of
others to complete complex tasks
• Propose, implement and monitor strategies to address identified needs
Yr 9/10
Help-seeking
Example Learning Activities
1. Help-seeking role-plays
•Work in pairs or trios. Choose one
CAN YOU HELP ME?
of the three Can you help me?
scenarios
Scenario 1: Your parent didn’t arrive
• Design and prepare a help- to pick you up after school.
seeking role-play
1. Explain how you feel Scenario 2: A friend is trying to force
you to do something that you know
2. Name the problem
is wrong.
3. Make a request for help
• Watch the role-plays and ask: Scenario 3: You’ve been away sick
 Have they named the problem? and don’t know how to do the new
Maths problems.
 Have they got their message
across clearly?
 What else could they do or say?
This activity is adapted from the Level 3-4 Building Resilience learning materials (Topic 6: Help-
seeking, Activity 5) 
Help-seeking
Example Learning Activities
2a. Assessing when to ask for adult help

•Level 5-6 Scenario: Your friend has started

•In small groups, respond to going to the sickbay a lot
the following scenario: with headaches. She told
you in secret that she is
feeling very upset
• What is the problem? because her parents are
• Who could you ask for fighting and she thinks
help? they are going to split up.
This has been stopping
• What could you say?
her from sleeping properly
at night. She asked you to
promise not to tell anyone.
This activity is adapted from the Level 3-4 Building Resilience learning materials (Topic 6: Help-
seeking, Activity 5) 
Help-seeking
Example Learning Activities
2b. Assessing when to ask for adult help
•Level 7-8 Scenario:
•In small groups, respond to A lot of people in the
the following scenario: class tease one of the
other students because
• What could you say to this person? of the way he looks. You
• How could you use a friend as a source of don’t like this and you
help?
• How could you use an adult as a source of can see it really gets to
•
help?
How could you use a teacher as a source of
this person, even
help? though he tries to laugh
• How could you use a parent as a source of
help? it off. You want it to stop.
• What can someone do in this situation to seek
help themself?

This activity is adapted from the Level 7-8 Building Resilience learning materials (Topic 6: Help-seeking,
Activity 2) 
Help-seeking
Example Learning Activities
2c. Assessing when to ask for adult help
•Level 9-10 Scenario:
•In small groups, respond to
the following scenario:
• Is this serious?
• Should George talk to someone else
about this?
• Should his friends talk to someone
about this? Who?
• What might happen if nobody takes
action?
George has started missing
school a lot and is falling behind
with his work. He stays home to
look after his mum who is
suffering from depression and
recovering from a problem
relating to alcohol use. He has
not told his friends what is
wrong with his mum, but they
know he has some kind of home
duties. His friends notice that
the teachers think he is just
wagging.
Help-seeking
REFLECT

• What are some sources of help for you as a teacher around

lesson planning, classroom management or general wellbeing
issues?
• How do you model help-seeking behaviour to your students?
• How do you respond to help-seeking behaviour from your
students?
• How do you encourage students to provide help to each other?
• How do you encourage students to seek your assistance and
each other’s assistance in the classroom?
• What do you do to help students to develop supportive peer
relationships?
Help-seeking
Useful Links
• Kidshelpline
www.kidshelp.com.au/

• Reachout
www.au.reachout.com/

• Beyond blue
www.beyondblue.org.au/

• Headspace
www.headspace.org.au/

• Get Ready (drug education resources)

http://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/health/Pages/drugedulearn.aspx

• Catching on Early and Catching on Later (Sexuality Education resources)

http://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/teachingresources/social/physed/Pages/r
esources.aspx
Help-seeking
References
• Cahill, Helen, & Coffey, Julia. (2013). Young people and the Learning Partnerships
program. Youth Studies Australia, 32(4).
• Ciarrochi, Deane et al, 2002, Adolescents who need help the most are the least likely to
seek it: the relationship between low emotional competence and low intention to seek
help, British Journal of Guidance and Counselling, Vol. 30, Iss. 2, p173
• Kuhl, Horlick and Morrisey, 1997, Measuring Barriers to help-seeking behaviour in
adolescents, Journal of Youth And Adolescence, Vol. 26, iss. 6, p 637-651
• Mazzar, K., & Rickwood, D. (2013). Teachers' role breadth and perceived efficacy in
supporting student mental health. Canberra: Universite of Canberra.
• Mission Australia Youth Mental Health report of Young Australians June 2014
http://www.missionaustralia.com.au
• Rickwood, D.J., 1995, The effectiveness of seeking help for coping with personal
problems in late adolescence, Journal of Youth and Adolescence, Vol. 24, Iss. 6, pp. 685
• Rickwood, D., Deane, F. P., Coralie, J. W., & Ciarrochi, J. (2005). Young people’s help-
seeking for mental health problems. Australian e-Journal for the Advancement of Mental
Health (AeJAMH), 4(3), 1-34.
• Rughani, Janaki, Deane, Frank P., & Wilson, Coralie J. (2011). Rural adolescents' help-
seeking intentions for emotional problems: The influence of perceived benefits and
stoicism. Australian Journal of Rural Health, 19(2), 64-69