Student wellbeing and mental health.

Fakaalofa atu

Working in the pastoral care space alerts me to the latest articles and information around the challenges facing our young people and an article last week caught my eye. It is titled: Concern from Youthline CEO amid huge rise in mental distress in young people.

The CEO of New Zealand’s pre-eminent youth mental health service says she’s concerned for the current generation of young people amid a huge rise in rates of mental distress over the last decade. Shae Ronald, ONZM, said it’s clear “things have changed for this generation” following research that shows mental distress had roughly doubled in young people locally and internationally since 2012. Ronald said there are multiple factors contributing to poor mental wellbeing in Aotearoa’s youth compared to previous generations, with Covid and adverse weather events both having had an effect in recent years, but she believes it’s the rise of social media that’s had one of the biggest impacts. “With social media, there’s this ‘always on’ mentality. A lot of young people talk about how it’s pretty constant. So if there are things going on in a young person’s life, it continues in that [online] space. Back in my day, we used to be able to leave school, and if we were being bullied or there were awful things happening, we would get a reprieve from that for a period of time. Young people now aren’t getting that downtime - they’re pretty ‘on’ [all the time].”

Youthline provides a 24/7 helpline, counselling and youth mentoring, with about 15,000 young people supported each year across eight centres. Ronald, who has worked in mental health for close to 30 years and became CEO of Youthline in 2018, says Covid has made things harder for young people. Research suggested they would be disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, and this is now taking shape in the form of a “mental health tail” from Covid. “There’s a bubble of young people coming through that would’ve been at intermediate school when Covid was at its worst in New Zealand. We’ve heard from lots of families that they are finding it particularly difficult, and schools are seeing that as they are entering high school,” Ronald says.

Our rangatahi need our love and support now more than ever. As a parent, it can be overwhelming finding out how to access that support. Villa Maria College is developing a Waiora Wellbeing Website page - a comprehensive resource aimed at delivering quality information for student safety. This page will offer a diverse range of topics, resources, and links and will serve as a beacon of support, providing students and parents with valuable information to navigate the complexities of adolescence - from mental health awareness to digital safety, healthy habits, and crisis support. It will be a centralised hub ensuring easy access to resources that empower all to thrive academically and personally, prioritising physical, emotional, and social health. We hope to launch this for you in a few weeks.

Te aroha noa me te rangimarie

Megan Cassidy,

Deputy Principal of Pastoral Care