[Kathe]

The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are still being felt, and much as been written about the impacts on the mental health and wellbeing of young people (including on REX Blog over the last few years, in June 2020, November 2021, and August 2022).

A recent policy brief from BGC Canada (in collaboration with The Canadian Child Care Federation, the Canadian Mental Health Association, and YWCA Canada) looks at what is needed to better support the mental health of frontline workers supporting children and youth, particularly those experiencing marginalization: The Burnout Crisis: A Call to Invest in ECE and Child and Youth Workers. (You can also check out the Youth Mental Health Joint Statement that YouthREX signed on to in collaboration with stakeholders from across Canada’s child and youth mental health sector.)

How have you experienced, navigated, and found ways to cope with burnout in your work?

Share your strategies here! You can also consider joining our two-part webinar series on arts-based approaches to advancing mental health and wellbeing to learn new techniques for supporting your mental health and the mental health of the young people with whom you work.❣

[Kathe]

Yes! Sometimes we can be listening to reply rather than listening to understand.

I’ve been thinking about resilience since our conversation yesterday. In our work, we talk about strategies to foster resilience in young people, and strength-based approaches will support us in focusing on, and amplifying, capacities to respond to and to overcome ‘hardship’. But I also appreciate what Deji cautioned about recognizing someone, for example, as “strong,” so that we don’t inadvertently erase (or, as Deji described, go “deaf” to) the ways in which that person has had to respond to injustice in order to survive and the oppressive forces they experience in their daily life and across their story.

What are your strategies for fostering resilience in critical, collaborative, and supportive ways, and during this challenging time?

[Uzo]

That’s a deep question, Kathe…thank you for asking: “What are your strategies for fostering resilience in critical,
collaborative, and supportive ways, and during this challenging time?”. COVID has pushed me to rethink my ideas of what “productivity” means…… I have loosened the expectations I have of myself of what I needed to wrap up this Summer and then extended this to this Fall. I realized that I needed to first release myself from my preconceived ideas around productivity to be able to extend this grace to others. I am going to keep this thought in mind in my virtual classrooms with social work students this Fall. Working and learning from home in a pandemic when lives are on the line is not just working and learning from home. COVID has sharpened my understanding of why collaborative work is so important! I miss the gatherings of our youth sector colleagues that YouthREX facilitates …..I desperately miss the sense of community that breaking bread together usually created…

[Cyril]

I really enjoyed the conversation today! https://youthrex.com/webinar/the-relentless-pursuit-of-better-youth-outcomes-towards-mental-wellness-in-conversation-with-dr-oyedeji-ayonrinde

One thing I took away from the conversation series was to Listen and to leave space to Learn from the people we support about how we can be more helpful. What works for some, may not work for others, and what worked yesterday might not be the most helpful intervention for today.

[Uzo]

Well said, Cyril! Yes, we must listen and learn. But even more importantly, we must get comfortable with uncertainty. I love this quote by Bertrand
Russel: “In all affairs, it’s a healthy thing now and then to hang a
question mark on the things you have long taken for granted”.