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‘Preventing and Treating Anxiety in Children and Young People’ Anxiety difficulties in children and adolescents are the most common psychological problems experienced by children, occurring in 10 – 20% of all school-aged children (Barrett 2001). FRIENDS for Life helps children and teenagers cope with feelings of fear, worry, and depression by building resilience and self-esteem and teaching cognitive, behavioural, and emotional skills in a simple, well-structured format. Developed in Australia and used in schools throughout the world, FRIENDS is the only school based anxiety programme acknowledged by the World Health Organization for its eight years of comprehensive evaluation and practice. (WHO, Prevention of Mental Disorders: Effective Interventions and Policy Options pp 42-43 2004) FRIENDS is based on a wealth of research and practical experience in thousands of classrooms. Evidence has shown that children with normal levels of worry benefit by acquiring resilience to emotional stress, whereas, exposing children with high anxiety levels to a complete 10 session FRIENDS program can reduce their risk of developing serious debilitating anxiety disorders. FRIENDS promotes self-esteem, problem solving, self-expression, the building of positive relationships with peers and adults, and therefore fits in well with the normal curriculum. FRIENDS is run by a school’s own teachers and does not involve any clinical assessment or diagnosis. It therefore avoids labeling children as anxious or different. FRIENDS is consistently described as a rewarding teaching experience that encourages the sharing of positive emotions. Students also say they enjoy the programme and find it helpful in their day-to-day lives. In each FRIENDS session, students are guided through a series of class-based activities designed to teach them how to deal with worrying situations. There are also optional home activities to complete between sessions. Parents have an opportunity to support their children and learn more about FRIENDS themselves by attending two parent sessions arranged by the school. Before starting a FRIENDS programme, teachers, teaching assistants and other key staff attend a one-day group-training workshop. These workshops are delivered regularly by Dr. Caroline Smith, Specialist Consultant Educational Psychologist. Caroline is an accredited training partner of the Australian Health and Research Centre and has been trained in Australia where she worked with Pathways staff. Having delivered FRIENDS training since 2003, Caroline has added Fun Friends to her portfolio of training. Caroline prefers to deliver FRIENDS and/or Fun Friends to groups of staff who work in the same geographical area . In this way groups of of teachers, teaching assistants, psychologists and home tutors who work together can make a real difference in their locality. To discuss organising FRIENDS and/or Fun Friends training workshops in your area please contact: Caroline on friends@interactive-connections.co.uk or phone on 01636 636060 If left unattended, anxiety difficulties may continue into adulthood, sometimes leading to depression. FRIENDS combats anxiety by fostering an emotional resilience in children and teenagers that will stay with them for life. For further information about the programme in general: download: The research team were Dr Ian Liddle and Susan Macmillan (PDF 1.8MB) 2) Introduction to FRIENDS booklet (PDF 1.5MB) 3) FRIENDS - Evidence base Abstracts information (PDF 0.75 MB) 4) Evaluating the FRIENDS programme in a Scottish setting Published in Educational Psychology in Practice March 2010
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Please visit the FRIENDS web site at www.friendsinfo.net and www.pathwayshrc.com.au Reference: Barrett, P.M.(2001) Interventions for Child and Youth Anxiety Disorders: Involving Parents, Teachers and Peers. School of Applied Psychology, Griffith University, Gold Coast Campus.
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