Whilst mental health problems can affect us at any stage of our lives, there is a higher risk of, and rapid increase in, mental health difficulties during early adolescence (10-14 years). A universal approach that focuses on early intervention and prevention could provide a sustainable solution for promoting mental health and greater resilience in adolescents. Our proposed solution is a new and exciting initiative called the ‘Resilience Rucksack’. This project is inspired by the baby box in Scotland, in which every new born baby receives a box comprising essential items to support a healthy start in life. Akin to the baby box, our vision is that young people transitioning from primary to secondary school will receive a rucksack containing items that research has identified as beneficial for adolescent’s mental health and wellbeing.
The initial phase of the project involved co-producing and co-designing wellbeing items/tools with young people and their relevant representatives (school teachers/staff, parents/carers) using a robust research evidence approach.
Following the initial design and pilot stages, we then launched a series of Resilience Fairs in schools across Oxfordshire and Berkshire in which researchers and mental health professionals set up booths illustrating evidence-based approaches for building resilience and maintaining wellbeing. Each booth represented each of the central themes of this research, Sleep, Movement, Friendship, and Self-Compassion and contained wellbeing tools that young people were able to choose for their personal resilience rucksack.
Ultimately, we hope the Resilience Rucksack initiative will provide a unique opportunity to engage young people in dialogue surrounding mental health, as well as promoting greater mental health literacy and awareness. This project has connected the University of Reading with a wider community of people working to provide mental health interventions. Read more about the Resilience Community here.
Click on the front cover below to see a colourful flip-book of our journey from the start
The Wellbeing Tools
In a series of co-production workshops with young people, we identified wellbeing tools that will best help support the four core themes.
Full list of the RR wellbeing tools:
Sleep Well, Being – our colourful graphic comic – supporting the ‘healthy sleep practices’ theme
Somni – The RR Sleep & Daylight song – our upbeat pop song – supporting the ‘healthy sleep practices’ theme. Click here to listen now on Spotify!
The Journal kit – supporting the ‘Physical activity’ theme
The Friendship Tree – supporting the ‘Social support & relationships’ theme
The RR Playing Cards – supporting the ‘Social support & relationships’ theme
The Stress Ball – supporting the Self-compassion theme
The Self Compassion Journal wellbeing tool– supporting the Self-compassion theme
Stepping forward: our stop-motion animation! – managing the Year 6-7 transition
The RR Book List– list of fiction and non-fiction books from Edinburgh International Book Festival exploring themes of Wellbeing and Resilience.
Customising the wellbeing tools – making the tools your own! – children can choose from a range of stickers and keychains to customise their own tools and resilience rucksack.
We also ran a ‘Design the Resilience Rucksack competition’, click here to find out more and view the winning design!
Meet our Core Team:
You can find more details and a presentation about the project below:
