Night Shift: exploring Mental Health
Using Debi Gliori’s book to help pupils explore mental health
CFE Third to Fourth Levels (Ages 9 – 15)
Resource created by Bill Plain, School Librarian based at Knox Academy, East Lothian Libraries and Museum Service.
Contents of this resource
Note to teachers Page 1
About Debi Gliori Page 2
Breaking the barrier - exploring and discussing mental health Page 2
Supporting yourself and others Page 6
Getting the message across Page 8
Note to Teachers using this resource
This resource is designed to be used alongside Debi Gliori’s book Night Shift to open up discussion surrounding mental health. Throughout the resource you will be referred to the book to use as guidance for the activities. You can adapt the resource to fit around your current classroom practice.
The activities within the resource will allow pupils to explore the issue of mental health and provide suggestions for how they can promote wellbeing across the school campus. It is by no means exhaustive and should not be used as a solution to mental health issues.
1 About Debi Gliori and Night Shift
Debi Gliori saw her first published work in 1990 and has written numerous books since. Her books are enjoyed by children and young adults across the world. Debi has been shortlisted for many awards, including the Kate Greenaway medal on two occasions. She has been a writer in residence for the Shetland Isles and continues to visit schools to promote writing, illustration and reading. She currently lives in East Lothian, Scotland.
You can find out more about Debi and her work on her website: http://www.debiglioribooks.com/. You can also follow Debi on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DebiGliori
Night Shift introduces the reader to living with depression. Through the words and vivid illustrations, the reader experiences how depression affects a person and how they learn to live with the condition. The book provides you with an opportunity to discuss mental health and allows pupils to explore their own thoughts and experiences of mental health issues. It can help the reader to empathise with those living with mental health issues.
Breaking the barrier – exploring and discussing mental health
One in four people in Scotland will experience mental health problems1. Teenagers often find it difficult to express exactly how they are feeling amidst the tangle of conflicting emotions and body changes experienced during adolescence.
This section will give young people the opportunity to explore what they know about the causes and effects of mental health issues, as well as helping them to understand what it can be like to experience these issues.
Night Shift’s opening pages show us the onset of mental health problems and the feelings an individual can encounter. The video links below also provide discussion points on mental health:
Mind’s video provides an introduction to mental health In Your Own Words: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_y97VF5UJcc
How Children Cope with Tough Times - clip from BBC series In the Mind in which children explain what they do when they are confronted with challenging feelings and
1 (Scottish Association for Mental Health https://www.samh.org.uk/about-mental-health/mental-health-problems) 2 who they seek help from during their tough time: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/health- 35563712/how-children-cope-with-tough-times
The following activities provide young people with the opportunity to discuss and explore causes and symptoms of mental health and the feelings surrounding them.
Identify causes HWB 4-04a, HWB 4-06a
Show pupils the mind map below. Allow them to identify how the different pressures may affect mental health. What kind of situations can these pressures result in, and what kind of thoughts and feelings can they lead to?
You can also begin to discuss possible coping mechanisms or strategies at this point if you wish. For example, with social media you may want to mention cyber bullying, and discuss the beginning of the solution (talking to a guidance teacher).
School
Social Bullying Media ME Friends Exams
Family
You may want to develop the mind map into a Kahoot quiz (https://kahoot.com/).
Are there others which haven’t been identified above and are more personal to the individual? The pupils should add any other aspect of their life which causes them concern for their mental health, and possibly the coping mechanisms they use to control that part of their life.
3 Effects HWB 4-06a
With some possible causes identified, the student can now look at the effects the issue may have, physically or otherwise. In Night Shift, we see how the character’s mood is affected, their downcast eyes, and sleepless nights through feeling anxious.
On a board or classroom wall, create three areas: Issue, Effects, Live.
Using the paper you provide, the young people will identify one mental health issue, an effect of this illness and ideas about how someone can help themselves live with this issue. e.g.
ISSUE: EFFECTS: LIVE:
Exam Stress Not sleeping, loss of Sport participation, read, listen appetite to to/create music, join a drama club
They should post their answers in the corresponding area of the board. Once everyone has had an opportunity to contribute you can read out thoughts and open the discussion up to the class.
Now that pupils have explored some possible causes and symptoms of mental health issues, you can use Night Shift to get them thinking about what it’s like to experience these issues.
Night Shift and Me HWB 4-02a, HWB 4-04a
From your reading of Night Shift and the activities above, allow time for discussion to establish how students have related to the text.
Points you may wish to discuss include:
In Night Shift, depression is represented as a dragon, which is dominates the character’s day to day existence. Have you encountered anything similar in your life? How did you maintain relationships during this time?
One of the most striking uses of colour in the book is when Debi Gliori is exploring the illness at school. We see a bright flame from the dragon across the page, along
4 with the words: “Night skills: sometimes the teacher uses the harshest methods to hammer the message home.”
What is Debi Gliori trying to convey with these words and the use of colour at this point? How effective is it in making you understand the way the character feels? What could you do to support the character?
Throughout the book the character’s facial expression changes to the mood and the feel alongside the dragon. How does this allow you to relate to what the character is experiencing?
Place yourself as either the character and/or one of their friends. Using either a poem, song or letter express how you feel. If you are the friend of the character, how can you let them know you are there for them? If you are the character, what are you feeling inside that no-one is seeing, how are people reacting around you and how would you like them and the situation to change?
Debi Gliori uses a dragon to illustrate the mental health issue being experienced. Can you think of a way to symbolise a mental health issue you have explored? Look at the way Debi allows the dragon to move in the text’s illustrations.
Think about how your representation moves. Where and how does it appear to you? Do you give it a name? Why have you chosen that image?
Has your thinking surrounding mental health issues changed after reading the book?
Note for teachers: You may want students to omit names from their designs to allow them to be displayed for discussion with pupils who are not directly working with Night Shift at the time.
Having explored causes and symptoms of mental health issues, pupils are now ready to discuss coping mechanisms, how they can support others, and find out more about the agencies and groups who can support them in the wider community.
5 Supporting yourself and others
Talking about mental health issues HWB 4-01a, HWB 4-05a, HWB 4-08a
“Words left me. There was no language for this feeling.”
We see these words nine pages into Night Shift, and the following pages of the book illustrate how someone experiencing mental health difficulties can find it difficult to express how they are feeling. However, it does often help someone if they try to talk about their feelings – this short film illustrates this point through the Disney film Inside Out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNsTy-j_sQs
Using the following table to get young people to explore the language some people say to those affected with mental health and how they feel about it. After the exercise, they should have a better understanding of positive vocabulary to use around those affected by mental health.
Phrase used How do think someone felt Words someone would on hearing them rather hear and use
Pull yourself together
Worse things happen at sea
Chin up
It’s all self self self with you
You went totally schiz
I’m a bit OCD about my things
It’s so depressing that…..
It is much more positive to offer help with a supportive gesture, thoughtfulness and words of encouragement, and these can help someone open up and talk about their experiences. A friend living with mental illness is still a friend: they will still like all the things that got you talking to them in the first place. It’s important for pupils to realise that their friends may need a little extra support during tough times.
Who can help? HWB 4-03a, HWB 4-06a
6 In your students’ wider community, who supports people experiencing mental health issues?
Ask the young people to find:
Agencies who can support those living with mental health issues.
Who, apart from GPs, are the professionals in the local community who can help those living with mental health issues?
What volunteering opportunities are available for you to support those living with mental health issues?
Your school or local librarian will be able to assist with information searching on the local community. The local authority website, library catalogue can provide links to agencies in the local community and this ensures the young people are using a secure and reliable source of information to gain their answers.
They should keep their information to use for activities listed further on in the resource.
Finding the Feather HWB 4-07a
At the end of Night Shift the dragons are tamed by the finding of a feather. It is the discovery of what allows the person to cope and live with their mental illness. Finding that feather can be done through a variety of ways, which can include the arts, sport, and reading.
The Arts provide an opportunity to express yourself through drama, dance, music, and art. All provide you to go and develop skills which will stimulate your brain and promote wellbeing.
Sport will develop physical wellbeing is also reduces stress, increases your energy levels, boosts brain power, increases confidence, improves sleep patterns, and raises self- esteem. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23Si5MO-TW0
Reading opens the imagination to other worlds and the world we live in. We develop empathy towards the characters and situations they find themselves in.
Children discussing why they read: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFZl53BBm_Q
7 Ask your students to identify what is their feather. The thing that makes them happy and why.
My feather is
Getting the message across
Using the information, they have discovered from their own thoughts and feelings, use of language, and the associations connected with mental health. Students now need to promote their findings to the school community.
Sharing findings HWB 4-10a, HWB 4-13a
There are many ways pupils can share what they’ve learned with the school and community:
Discussion panel:
Ask for time in school to host an open discussion on Mental Health for students, staff, and parents/carers.
With the community information, invite a group of professionals into school to discuss mental health. Allow time for people to get a date into their diary and to respond to your invitation. Set out a clear structure to your discussion:
What affects mental health? What steps can be taken to improve our mental health? How can we support those affected by mental health issues?
Ensure your panel is wide ranging. You may want to include a local GP, representative from a local Mental Health organisation, wellbeing partners (librarian, sport co-ordinator etc.)
The chair of your panel should know the time limit for panel members to talk and if you are inviting the floor to ask questions. 8 Give sixty to ninety minutes for the open discussion.
Podcast:
Create a podcast for your school on mental health.
Let those affected in your school community they are not alone and how the school supports their wellbeing. You may want to highlight local groups and can use an event like the discussion panel to launch your podcast.
Self-help leaflet:
Produce a leaflet for your school to promote health and wellbeing on campus. What can you do to increase your wellbeing? Who is around to support you when things get tough?
The leaflet can be placed on school website to download or copies made for distribution to students across the school.
Poster:
Speak to the Headteacher and see if a prize can be obtained for a poster competition to raise awareness of mental health. The poster would be displayed in classrooms. You may want students to:
Know the signs of mental health issues and how they can be supported through them or
How to support friends living with mental health issues
Art/Craft and or Music club:
Set up a club if there isn’t one already to allow students to explore their creative side and promote their wellbeing.
Drop In:
Are there safe spaces pupils can openly discuss the issues they are facing? A drop-in forum can provide group support and make the student aware they are not alone.
9 Further information:
Older students may also want to use the activities as a starting point for further study relating to Janice Galloway’s The Trick is to Keep Breathing. They can develop their voice with the activities and use them for the experiences of Joy Stone the character in Janice’s text.
Scottish Book Trust http://bit.ly/mentalhealthresourcesschool http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/reading/book-lists/themes/mental-health
Scottish Association for Mental Health https://www.samh.org.uk
MIND www.mind.org.uk
Young Minds www.youngminds.org.uk
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