Parallel Session 3
Therapeutic approaches to address emotional difficulties can be successful in schools, but effects are variable and a wide range of approaches are being used. This project explores the use of therapy dogs in primary settings and how they are being used to address the behaviour, well-being, and socio-emotional needs of young people. It is a mixed methods research project involving two primary schools in South Wales, one of which works in collaboration with a non-profit, community interest company that facilitates delivery of the therapeutic, early intervention.
Studies have shown that children’s well-being is linked closely to many factors including academic attainment, behaviour, and socio-economic influences. As an experienced primary practitioner and now a teacher educator I am keen to be open to exploring different interventions that can support children’s well-being. The interest in this research was sparked through casual and unstructured observation of a dog in a local school where it was clear he had an important role in the well-being and social interactions of the children. The way he interacted with the children and the way they interacted with him made me curious about its potential as a therapeutic approach. There are many studies around the use of animals, in particular dogs, to increase academic attainment. In these cases, children sit with a trained dog and read to them. In schools where this method is being implemented, it has been found to increase reading levels by raising confidence and increasing levels of calmness among the learners (Melson, 2013).
Much of the research around the use of therapeutic animals and well-being has occurred within clinical settings with therapists and clients, work spearheaded by Boris Levinson (Levinson, 1962, 1984). There is much less research investigating the impact dogs have on well-being behavior, and attendance but the work of Anderson et al, 2006; Zents, Fisk, and Lauback, on the use of therapeutic dogs indicates some positive effects.
The study focuses on work in primary school settings. The main study primary school is supporting interventions in collaboration with a non-profit, community interest company that facilitates delivery of the therapeutic, early intervention. A dog visits once a week working with individual pupils. The dog is accompanied by a trained therapist. There are 7 children receiving support, and these children were selected by the school as those in most need due to Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), inappropriate behaviour or poor attendance.
A second primary school used to work with the same company, and because they saw such positive results, decided to adopt their own dog in school full-time.
The methodology is a mixed methods approach. According to Kettles et al (2010) and Shaw et al (2010), it has the potential to generate comprehensive results for funders or policymakers, providing more credibility of any findings. The aim of this pilot is to generate discussion about the potential of this approach. Quantitative data will be drawn from questionnaires such as the ‘Stirling Wellbeing Scale’ and the ‘Strengths and Difficulties’ questionnaires as well as more qualitative data from interviews and discussions from focus group dialogue from pupils, staff and parents. This sits within the interpretivist paradigm where the focus is understanding the world from the subjective experiences of individuals (Guba and Lincoln, 1989). The aim is to understand and interpret what the participants experience and opinions are. Every effort is made to try to understand the viewpoint of the subject being observed, rather than the viewpoint of the observer (Bogden and Biklen, 1998).
This study will assess the benefits for all learners and begin to explore the notion for wide-scale mental health screening in schools to allow early intervention in addressing these needs. It is believed that the costs of implementing such a scheme will far outweigh the costs needed for remedial support later in life (Hergovich et al, 2002; Humphrey and Wiglesworth, 2016).
There will be opportunities for further research in this area. In a post-pandemic educational situation and acknowledging the focus in the new ‘Curriculum for Wales’ Area of Learning and Experience – ‘Health and Well-being,’ there is a need for schools to develop ways to design into their curricula methods to address well-being. Research into how therapeutic dogs can have an impact on raising well-being in young people could be impactful not only academically but also for their mental health and well-being.
Blyth Tall Ship (BTS) is a heritage boatyard in the Port of Blyth in North East England which builds and launches traditional ships and organises expeditions. They have used their resources to deliver training (primarily NVQ Levels 1 & 2) based on heritage boat-building skills. More recently, an award from the National Lottery Heritage Fund has allowed BTS to develop the ‘Learning the Ropes’ programme of workshops which have a wider focus on fostering individual and community wellbeing, and include woodworking, gansey knitting, seamanship, sewing with sailcloth, knot-tying, archiving and sea shanty singing. Their aims are supported by Brown et al (2015) who found that engaging in heritage activities can have an independent and positive association with life satisfaction.
The aim of this research is to develop a ‘toolkit’ of evaluation techniques that allow BTS staff to capture the impact of their work on the participants (individual wellbeing) and the wider impact for the community of Blyth (community wellbeing) to inform future recruitment and delivery, and impact wellbeing in the longer term.
The research uses a qualitative research design based on observations of participants; self-completion questionnaires by participants; interviews with participants, facilitators and key external stakeholders and partners; participatory visual methods to elicit discussion; and secondary data analysis. The team therefore aims to answer the following research questions throughout this evaluation process:
1) Do workshop participants demonstrate improved wellbeing through engaging in the workshops?
2) Do workshop participants demonstrate greater involvement in or connection with the wider community as a result of engagement with the workshops?
3) Does BTS have a wider impact on and greater visibility in the community as a result of the workshops?
The team observed and worked with participants and facilitators from workshops offered as part of Blyth Tall Ship’s Learn the Ropes courses. We drew on theories and research from the field of social sciences with reference primarily to community wellbeing and volunteering and compiled a set of evaluation tools which had been previously developed and trialled including an observation sheet and the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWBS) questionnaire. Semi-structured interviews gave an insight into social activities regularly undertaken by participants as well as participants’ motivations and perceptions of the impact of the sessions. Alongside these, the concept of community wellbeing was explored using a Diamond 9 ranking exercise in a participatory approach.
Our initial findings demonstrate that there is evidence of an increase in individual wellbeing over the course of the workshops, and the qualitative comments from the participants reflect the impact that engaging the workshops has had on their confidence and willingness to interact with others. Although the WEMWBS self-reported wellbeing scores did show an increase, there is nonetheless debate over how external factors (e.g. grief) may influence their scoring and how much emphasis can be put on the workshops alone raising wellbeing.
The findings highlighted the question of how a short-term intervention can lead to long-term impact on the individual. Of the individuals engaging in a 12-week course, some sought to prolong their involvement through signing up to subsequent courses, returning to volunteer with the organisation, or becoming part of an offshoot group. However, there is a danger that engaging in a workshop course will increase wellbeing, only to leave the participant feeling a sense of loss when the workshop ends. These questions highlighted the need to signpost participants to other opportunities, within or outside of BTS. This, in turn, pointed to the importance of BTS being connected into the wider ecosystem of care in the region.
Understanding of community wellbeing draws on Atkinson et al’s conception – that it is more than just the aggregate of individuals’ wellbeing and “emerges from the relations between individuals, between individuals and place, individuals and cultural values and heritage and so on” (2017, 5). Network analysis of the interview data showed that many participants frequent several community organisations across the local area, and there is crossover between workshops, but this varied with the different workshops – knitters were more socially connected than woodworkers. Finally, there is strong evidence that the sea shanties group is branching out into the local community through performances at community events and that engagement in this group not only has a marked impact on the individual’s wellbeing, but also encourages them to take part in local events and forge an identity as a key part of a larger group.
According to The World Health Organization (WHO, 2013), children’s mental health and wellbeing (MHWB) is a major public health challenge. Given the impact of Covid-19 along with the impact on children’s physical and psychological wellbeing, which has been further exacerbated through the cost of living crisis, children’s MHWB is a topical issue (Carr et al., 2021; Newlove-Delgado et al., 2021; Widnall et al., 2020). The martial arts offer a potential approach to address such issues.
The therapeutic benefits of training in the martial arts has a lengthy research tradition discussing the positive effect of reducing depression and anxiety, while increasing self-esteem along with self-transcendent benefits (e.g. Columbus and Rice, 1998; Massey, 1998; Monahan, 2003; Twemlow et al., 1996; Weiser et al., 1995; Yang, 1998; Wang, 2010). However, such research has become dated and research into the relationship between martial arts participation and children’s self-esteem is limited.
While previous research is difficult to generalise given demographics, the martial art trained, and so forth, there is the potential to distil techniques into a general martial arts inspired programme to elicit positive affect in children.
The Mindful Movement Programme (MMP) synthesised and simplified techniques from the ‘Jook Wan Huen’ (a ring used to practice Wing Chun found in some lineages of the style), along with ‘tea serving’ exercises from Ba Gua. The techniques used easily available physical education equipment found in schools, while removing aspects that would allow practical application of the techniques outside of the Programme.
A quasi-experiment was conducted, adopting a convergent mixed methodological design. This combined predominantly quantitative data through both state and trait measures of self-esteem with a smaller qualitative element from participants’ responses of the programme. A control group (N=24, age M=11.0 years) and an experimental group (N=22, age M=11.0 years) were assessed prior to, and at the end of, the four week programme. A one-way between-groups analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in both trait and state self-esteem for the experimental group, while both the state and trait self-esteem for the control group diminished. From a qualitative perspective, the experimental group reported many positive attributes, such as relaxing, calming, absorbing, etc.
Consequently, from the results of this study, a martial art inspired programme for children can increase both trait and state self-esteem. Such a programme could easily be adopted for other school settings.
Background:
The mental health and wellbeing of care-experienced children and young people is a public health and social care priority, and there is evidence of higher rates of mental health disorders, poor subjective wellbeing, and suicide attempts within this group when compared to the general population (1-3). Schools are a key site for supporting mental health and wellbeing, but whilst governments continue to make significant progress in school-based provision (4-6) there are limited services specifically for care-experienced children and young people (7). This is despite policy directives stating that ‘vulnerable’ populations must have equal access to high quality provision (8, 9).
Addressing this is challenging, as there is a paucity of evidence on the effectiveness of interventions for this population (7, 10) and a dearth of understanding as to how the educational system might work with health and social care systems to implement evidence-based approaches, particularly at key educational transition points, such as the transition to post-16 education (11).
This presentation will introduce initial findings from an empirical research study which aims to understand experiences of delivering and receiving mental health and wellbeing provision for care-experienced children and young people in secondary schools and Further Education (FE) Colleges in Wales, in order to develop recommendations to enhance service quality and ensure equitable access.
Methods:
The study draws on mixed research methods across three phases of work. Firstly, a series of consultation events with care-experienced children and young people, foster carers and adoptive parents, and practitioners from social care, education, and health, identify particular difficulties or perceived gaps in support systems and services from the perspectives of different stakeholder groups.
Secondly, analysis of data from the School Health Research Network (SHRN) survey provides quantitative insights into mental health and well-being provision for care-experienced children and young people at secondary school. SHRN is a biennial survey of secondary schools in Wales incorporating the Student Health and Wellbeing survey (n=103,971) and the School Environment Questionnaire (completed by senior school staff) from 2017/18 (n=161).
Thirdly, qualitative case study research was conducted with schools, FE colleges, social work teams and Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMHS) teams. These include interviews and focus groups with children and young people, adoptive parents and carers and staff from four localities across Wales. A thematic analytical approach focuses on determinants of mental health and wellbeing provision within educational and social care systems. Method level analysis for each phase of research will be combined with study level analysis across the datasets.
Findings:
Initial findings will be presented from each phase of work to understand how best to support the mental health and wellbeing of care-experienced children and young people in educational settings. Findings will focus on experiences of delivering and receiving provision, what people think about current provision and what the perceived problems and gaps are, including how education practitioners work with those from social care and mental health. Reflections on research engagement with schools and colleges, and mechanisms for public involvement will also be presented.