Earlier in the school year, CPCO and Starling Minds’ founder and CEO, Dr. Andrew Miki, launched an online mental health initiative supporting our Practising Associates. Starling is an online program available to all CPCO members. It presents an example of an administrator such as David to explain mental health concepts and how to increase resiliency to stress. To learn more about Starling Minds, please read our earlier blog post.
The Starling program was developed by Dr. Andrew Miki. Andrew is a registered psychologist with over 10 years of experience working with patients to treat depression, anxiety and other mental health issues using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). This is the first of several posts Andrew is contributing to our blog. …show more content…
However, as we discussed his job, I learned that his school had very demanding parents and a strong Parent Advisory Council (PAC). It was a major source of stress for the teachers and staff at the school. Although David did not feel that it was a problem when parents’ demands were directed at him, they would relentlessly contact many of the teachers and expect immediate responses – even outside of regular school hours. It seemed that David was able to cope with this dynamic for several years but now it was taking a lot more of his time and energy to manage the parents’ expectations and advocate for his teachers.
When we applied the gas tank analogy (see Understanding Mental Health in Module 1 of the Starling Minds program) to David’s life over the past three years, it became clear that his daughter’s recent health struggles lowered his baseline level of fuel. As his baseline dropped, his conscientiousness personality caused him to work harder to keep up with all of his responsibilities at work. While this helped in the short-term, he could not maintain such a high output for an indefinite period of time. Eventually his baseline dipped below the symptom line and he did not know how to …show more content…
He didn’t take any time off work but he did notice that he wasn’t always as sharp or present.
Does David’s story resonate with you? Do you think it’s understandable what he is experiencing? Where would you place David on the mental health continuum based on his symptoms and functioning (see Continuum of Mental Health in Module 4 of the Starling Minds program)? I will cover this and his diagnosis in my next blog next month.
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* Please note: the case study of David was created to illustrate a wide range of issues that are faced by principals and vice-principals. David’s name and all of his personal details have been changed to protect his confidentiality/privacy.
Subscribe to our blog for the latest updates and weekly posts, including an upcoming guest post from George Couros and more from Dr. Andrew
The Starling program was developed by Dr. Andrew Miki. Andrew is a registered psychologist with over 10 years of experience working with patients to treat depression, anxiety and other mental health issues using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). This is the first of several posts Andrew is contributing to our blog. …show more content…
However, as we discussed his job, I learned that his school had very demanding parents and a strong Parent Advisory Council (PAC). It was a major source of stress for the teachers and staff at the school. Although David did not feel that it was a problem when parents’ demands were directed at him, they would relentlessly contact many of the teachers and expect immediate responses – even outside of regular school hours. It seemed that David was able to cope with this dynamic for several years but now it was taking a lot more of his time and energy to manage the parents’ expectations and advocate for his teachers.
When we applied the gas tank analogy (see Understanding Mental Health in Module 1 of the Starling Minds program) to David’s life over the past three years, it became clear that his daughter’s recent health struggles lowered his baseline level of fuel. As his baseline dropped, his conscientiousness personality caused him to work harder to keep up with all of his responsibilities at work. While this helped in the short-term, he could not maintain such a high output for an indefinite period of time. Eventually his baseline dipped below the symptom line and he did not know how to …show more content…
He didn’t take any time off work but he did notice that he wasn’t always as sharp or present.
Does David’s story resonate with you? Do you think it’s understandable what he is experiencing? Where would you place David on the mental health continuum based on his symptoms and functioning (see Continuum of Mental Health in Module 4 of the Starling Minds program)? I will cover this and his diagnosis in my next blog next month.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Please note: the case study of David was created to illustrate a wide range of issues that are faced by principals and vice-principals. David’s name and all of his personal details have been changed to protect his confidentiality/privacy.
Subscribe to our blog for the latest updates and weekly posts, including an upcoming guest post from George Couros and more from Dr. Andrew