Mental Health Presentations

This morning, five Year 13 Psychologists delivered an assembly on ‘What is normal?’, a question asked by most young people at some point in their lives.

Today, on World Mental Health Awareness Day Joel Cawdell, Daniel Anstey, Katie Manning, Ben West and Jack Parrott gave a brilliant presentation that asked the question ‘what is normal?’. The presentation covered issues on physical, mental and emotional ‘normality’ and explained that it is exceptionally difficult to define what is normal, because everyone is so different.

The group then showed a video of a TEDx Talk, in which the speaker anecdotally described the difficulty in building cockpits in fighter planes. The difficulty was the size of the cockpit, and how problems had occurred because some pilots couldn’t reach some of the controls. The question raised was how to build a cockpit that was suitable for people who are short, tall, large, small, etc. The speaker went on to explain that it is actually impossible to build one cockpit for all, because so few people are average in every aspect. A person may be average in height, but may have broader than average shoulders, or they may have arms that are shorter than average.

Following on from this and to demonstrate the point of how different we all are, the group asked everyone in the room to stand up, and to sit down again when a statement appeared on the screen that applied to them. For example, If you are left handed, if you can’t roll your tongue, if you have dark hair, and so on. By the end, in a room of at least 100 people, only one remained standing.

When the five pupils had finished their presentations, Head of Lower School Mr Crisford explained how important it is, particularly for young men, to speak out about their emotions and feelings in order to understand their own mental health and that of others. He explained this with the fantastic analogy that if a friend had a broken leg, and was on crutches, you’d probably want to help them by carrying their bags or holding a door open for them. He went on to explain that mental health issues are often nowhere near as visible as a plastered leg and crutches or other physical injury. Because of this, he said that it is important to speak to that friend who you may have noticed isn’t quite himself, and ask if he needs help. In most cases, speaking about a problem within oneself is the first step towards solving that problem.

Other presentations, made by the budding psychologists, were on depression. They included psychological models of depression, possible solutions and treatments for depression and how Cognitive Behaviour Therapy could indeed be the way forward.

At Shiplake College, pupils are able to speak with friends, teachers, Housemasters, Matrons, the nurses and the Rev, and the College can arrange for counselling for pupils who need to speak to someone objectively.