Building resilience in children and young people

Overview

This resource describes what good practice looks like in community-based group counselling for building resilience in children and young people aged 7–20 years. It provides insights on prevention and mental health promotion interventions effective in increasing resilience in children and young people. This resource will be useful for community mental health practitioners, program coordinators and program managers working in child and family community-based services.

This resource aims to provide the reader a better understanding of:

To provide a holistic picture of good counselling practice, we also describe some broader factors that can influence the effectiveness of counselling interventions:

To develop this resource, we reviewed 19 Australian and international studies about community-based group interventions to enhance resilience. The interventions were mostly set in a school context and tended to be facilitated by teachers, yoga instructors or trained program facilitators. The evidence quality is mixed but there is some strong evidence for the effectiveness of some psychoeducation interventions.

Reference

MacDonald, J.B., Dobud, W., & Muir, S. (2024). Building resilience in children and young people (Policy and practice paper). Melbourne: Child Family Community Australia, Australian Institute of Family Studies.