Risk and Resilience

"There is a strong evidence base, built over many years, to indicate the risk factors that can make children, families and whole communities vulnerable to poor mental health." 

So says YoungMinds one of the flourishing charities built up around children`s wellbeing with its emphasis on risk and resilience. They point to risk factors such as family breakdown, bereavement and parental mental illness. (Well, mental illness would indicate poor mental health, would it not?)  Apart from stating the obvious, the charity`s emphasis tends to encourage a `blame the victims` approach. 
^{http://www.youngminds.org.uk/training_services/young_minds_in_schools/wellbeing/risk_and_resilience}

There are other ways of looking at things. Instead we could point out that there is strong experiential evidence built over many years that having a job protects against poor mental health. 

Here is an article which exposes what the push for wellbeing and resilience in schools is really about.

Students must become resilient to cope with `abysmal` prospects.

Teachers, schools and colleges will need to be at the forefront of dealing with the lasting psychological impact of unemployment and recession on Scotland`s young people, experts have warned. Andy Furlong, a professor of social inclusion and education at the University of Glasgow, said that "abysmal" job prospects for young people were the new reality, and that there would be no return to pre-recession opportunities. Educators needed to help young people to develop the skills to manage complex situations and adapt to ongoing change, he said, but warned that forcing reluctant conscripts on to sometimes second-rate programmes could be counterproductive. 

http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6436092

So, no jobs,  just `expert` guidance about resilience. Let`s hope our young people don`t fall for any of it.