Navigating Life
A Critical Psychological Analysis of How Mental Health in United Kingdom Schools Is Approached and Constructed
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Sam Carr
This paper draws upon literature from critical psychology, mental health, and schooling to critique how children and young people’s “mental health” is currently constructed, presented, and practiced in relation to schooling in the UK. We look critically at the how policy has problematized mental health and argue that the mental health movement in contemporary schools can be seen to reflect an agenda related to the construction of neoliberal subjectivities and the governance of personhood in neoliberal society. Furthermore, we believe that it would be remiss not to take this opportunity to engage in open debate about the meaning of mental health in the context of schooling, carefully examining the possibility that educational policy may be as much a part of the problem as it is the solution and critically engaging with the meaning of mental health.
HIV Stress Exchange: HIV Trauma, Intergenerational Stress, and Queer Men
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Tyler Argüello
Within dominant research and practice, HIV is commonly positioned as the categorical outcome of a risk-laden life trajectory: one is positive, negative, or has an unknown status. “Test and treat” drive mainstream prevention and interventions in the U.S. (ONAP, 2015). This approach, however, does little to address HIV as an historically traumatic event and chronically stressful experience for queer men. This project deployed a discourse analysis (Fairclough, 2003, 2013; Gee, 2014; Kress and van Leeuwen, 2006) to explore the process of HIV stress exchange (HSE), as I term it, which is a purposefully triangulated conversation amongst HIV discourse, intergenerational stress, and queer men. Initial findings will be reviewed; data selection completes summer 2017, and is comprised of in-depth interviews and an original archive of visual resources. In this moment, queer men hold anxieties related to non-validated, unintelligible, and often unvoiced stress specifically due to living within the era of HIV, inclusive of all ages and sero-statuses. Tending to HIV as discourse exchanged across generations is an important addition to the array of prevention strategies and interventions. This work can illuminate the effects of HIV as a principally traumatic event, and how queer men negotiate this stress and their wellbeing.
Social Communication Challenges in Neurodiverse Populations
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Amanda Guzman, Amanda Guzman, Marie Sanford, Jenna Abrahamsen, Sarah Tracey
Neurodiversity is an emergent area of scholarship that views neurological differences as resulting from natural variations in the human genome. The continuum of neurodiversity encompasses a wide range of neurological differences including autism spectrum disorder (ASD), learning disabilities (LD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and various psychological disorders. Aligned with these neurodiversities are recurrent departures in both sensory processing behaviors and social communication patterns. The combination of these phenomena often results in impairments in social skills and difficulties in navigating new social environments, leading to potential academic failure, social isolation, and loss of employment. These individuals often require support to achieve positive social outcomes. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association describes social communication skills as the ability to vary speech style, take the perspective of others, understand and appropriately use the rules for verbal and nonverbal communication, and use the structural aspects of language (e.g., vocabulary, syntax, and phonology) to accomplish these goals. Understanding the nature of an individual’s approach to succeeding in social learning has become critical in today’s ever-changing world. This study identifies the challenges of social communication differences in a variety of neurodiverse populations and addresses the advantages of identifying associations between sensory processing patterns and social communication skills.
Push on Through: Educational Policy and the Role of Schooling in Responding to a Mental Health Crisis
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ceri Brown
The unprecedented number of children suffering from mental illnesses in the UK, has prompted the government into promising that, 'every child will learn about mental health and wellbeing' (DoE/DoH 2017 p29). This signals a fundamental transformation in schools’ involvement in mental health and the state’s extended reach into children's psychic development. We might consider this against a broader shift from a ‘pathogenic’ to ‘salutogenic’ approach to mental health (Weare 2010) where a focus upon mental health problems is replaced with one that designs actions to promote wellbeing and health. At the heart of this project is a narrative of mental health constructed through the architecture of mental strength: resilience, thriving, character. It is argued that such concepts reflect the policy hijacking of what are socio-cultural and structurally shaped protective factors, reduced to the products of personal capability and individual agency. Drawing upon a pilot study exploring young peoples' understandings of mental health concepts within six secondary schools' identified for an intensive focus on mental health education, this paper argues that the policy formulation of good mental health in terms of 'push on through' the pressures experienced in today's performative culture of schooling, run counter to the best interests of children.
