PROTECTING THE NEXT GENERATION
Entrepreneur Tony Quinn has stepped up to give schoolchildren the mental health support they need to thrive, particularly after COVID-19.
Highlands, in Cromwell, was a rabbit-ridden paddock only a decade or so ago. Today, thanks to Scottish entrepreneur Tony Quinn, it’s a world-class motorsport and tourism facility – a private enterprise providing value and employment to the local community, that next year will be celebrating 10 years of success.
Tony Quinn (affectionately known as TQ to his friends and team) is a motorsport enthusiast, racing car driver and owner of three highly successful motorsport parks around New Zealand (Hampton Downs, Taupo and Highlands). No stranger to high performance, a tenet that courses through the veins of all of his ventures, TQ gets things done. “If I say I’m going to do something, it will be done. There’s no doubt about it ... what drives me initially is competition and the challenge. It’s not about money. People think it’s about money; it’s not. Money comes through hard work and making good strategic decisions,” he says.
So, when TQ decided he wanted to give back to the communities that have been so supportive of his ventures (initially, there was some scepticism among a few Cromwell residents about the park, but they quickly realised its value), he went straight to the schools in the community and asked, ‘What is your greatest need?’
The resounding response was mental health support and a social worker in schools. It was a desperate need – kids and their families needed help being connected to the support systems, and just as importantly, a need was expressed to give kids the tools to have good mental health – being the gate at the top of the cliff.
Many of the children had experienced heightened mental health challenges due to the limitations, uncertainty, anxiety, lockdowns, stressful family dynamics and the sense of isolation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic as it engulfed every aspect of their lives. And so TQ, along with Highlands CEO, Josie Spillane, engaged with three local schools – Goldfields Primary School, Cromwell Primary School and Cromwell College, as well as the Cromwell Youth Trust to understand students’ needs before engaging experts in mental health and first aid trainers Prevent, an Australian provider with a track record of success.
HOW IT WILL HELP
Prevent will work with the schools to understand the needs of the students, their families and the wider community and tailor their mental health first aid workshop to support the kids and their parents, caregivers and leaders.
The initiative, launched in June, consists of a week-long workshop that will provide the young people with tools and knowledge to help them understand and manage their own mental health and wellbeing.
Highlands has committed to delivering the programme for five years with a view to expanding across the other centres where TQ operates his Taupo and Waikato motorsport facilities later this year.
“The Prevent coordinators will work with years 6-10, giving them the tools they need ... the basics around exercise, diet, social environment, self-esteem and to understand what
anxiety is, and not place a good or bad label on it, but to be able to identify it and be given tools to know what to do when experiencing it,” says Spillane. “People shouldn’t have to fall down a rabbit warren of anguish. If we can give them the tools, they can learn. And if we can play a role in enabling them to have a positive approach to mental health, we’re setting them up for life.”
The initiative also addresses the critical importance of helping the kids implement what they have learned on a day-to-day and ongoing basis. The workshop will deliver the knowledge and tools that need to be embedded and supported by an experienced social worker, Amy Hall-Jones. She will help students and their parents with one-to-one and, subsequently, group sessions. She is well-positioned to provide this support, having previously worked within Oranga Tamariki Ministry for Children.
MENTAL HEALTH CHALLENGES
Hall-Jones explained that mental health issues are hitting kids harder, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Alarmingly, she has also observed mental health challenges arising at a younger age: “Kids of 8-10 years are having self-harming thoughts,” she says.
Homeschooling has meant isolation. Not being able to socialise with friends and peers has stunted young people’s ability to build and maintain social skills, relationships, resilience and confidence. Add to that the stress and financial struggles that families are facing, the increased screen time spent on mobile phones and devices and the unhelpful and idealistic content being perpetuated by social media platforms – particularly to young girls – and it’s not hard to see why young people are struggling with significant mental health challenges.
Hall-Jones does not doubt that her biggest challenge will be to gain consent – getting parents on board to accept that their child needs help or that they do, too. It is challenging in a small rural community where the cultural norm is to keep problems hidden. Hall-Jones’ primary goal is to ensure every child feels cared for and loved. She’s especially keen to identify and help the kids that fall through the cracks.
Through her experience, she is highly aware that “it only takes one positive adult’s influence to turn a child’s life around”. It is a vital role that she has taken on, and she is excited about its potential.
Hall-Jones uses an assessment model for the children and parents she will be working with – te whare tapa whā – a Māori health model, focused on the overall hauora of a person. The concept of this model is based on us all having four walls, and that if one wall is unbalanced or damaged, it leads to unwellness. The four walls consist of taha tinana (physical wellbeing), taha wairua (spiritual wellbeing), taha whānau (family wellbeing), and taha hinengaro (mental wellbeing).
“Through my assessment, I will be looking at what is strong in each of the walls and what is not – so that I can help build and strengthen the weaker walls,” she says.
LIGHTENING TEACHER LOADS
Hall-Jones will be working in the Cromwell schools during the day and with the parents after school. Her role will take some of the pressure off teachers, says Spillane.
“When you look at the role of a teacher in New Zealand, it has expanded to become a teacher, counsellor, financial adviser, mum, dad, referee – they can’t do all of that! There are resources around, but the time and effort it takes to unlock these are incredibly time-consuming; also, it’s an immense responsibility to triage a child’s needs when it comes to mental health. We hope that with a social worker available, the teachers can refer the children to them for support,” says Spillane.
Meanwhile, TQ is resolute that what was offered was efficient, not just funding or lip service.
“We want the social worker to be working hard, supporting teachers when it comes to wellbeing and mental health, making it their domain, their job, and allowing the teachers to become more efficient.”
“PEOPLE SHOULDN’T HAVE TO FALL DOWN A RABBIT WARREN OF ANGUISH. WE GIVE THEM THE TOOLS TO LEARN.” JOSIE SPILLANE
The mental health and first aid workshops will also be run for parents and leaders in the community. Highlands are conscious that the initiative needs to be community-centric to be successful. By training the trainers, they can encourage ongoing and widespread support and a safer environment for the young people to thrive within.
“It’s about teaching kids that failure is okay because that’s what life is like,” says Hall-Jones. “And teaching them coping tools and resilience – how to deal with it when it happens.”
The initiative’s progress will be monitored and can evolve as needed to ensure it works to the best of its potential.
“This is something we’re doing in the community we work in. And if it works – happy days. Maybe it will inspire other business people who can afford to do so, to do something similar and give back to the community,” says Quinn.
“If we can save one person, we’ve done a fine job. And I believe we’ll save 100 people.”