I used to employ a specific technique during the NLP4Kids discovery days, and I want to share that same example with you today. It’s interesting because just the other day, I was contemplating decision-making strategies and it reminded me of this technique. However, I couldn’t recall all the details of the process. So, I decided to browse through our YouTube channel and stumbled upon an old video from one of our discovery days, which was a whopping seven years ago! I watched about 10 minutes of it and was taken aback by a few things. Firstly, my posture was absolutely terrible. Secondly, I was discussing the future, mentioning that I had a hunch that mental and emotional well-being issues among children and young people would increase.

Now, let’s pause for a moment and reflect. Did any of us predict that mental health problems would decline? Or did we all anticipate an increase? What have you heard? Over time, mental health issues among young people have indeed been on the rise. Watching that old video, I couldn’t help but think, “Wow, I had a feeling about this back then.” Of course, I couldn’t have known everything that would unfold in the following years, but it’s remarkable how my intuition was spot on. Seven years ago, I was passionately advocating for the mental well-being of children and young people, striving to ensure a brighter future for them. However, I also had this nagging sense that my efforts alone wouldn’t be enough. It was as if I could sense an impending avalanche heading my way, and I was desperately rallying people to take action.

Unfortunately, the response I received at the time wasn’t quite what I had hoped for. But now, looking back, it’s clear that everyone understands the importance of the message I was conveying seven years ago.

The question was, should we take action to tackle this problem?

Now, let me explain how I approached this challenge. Firstly, I considered the possibility that taking action might not be necessary. What if children’s emotional and mental well-being issues were not actually on the rise? It turns out, Gemma had her facts wrong all along. In my opinion, one consequence of taking action in such a scenario would be wasting money on unnecessary services. That money could have been better utilised elsewhere. Another consequence could be that by investing in services to improve their mental and emotional health, we might inadvertently make the children even better off. They could gain more confidence and develop resilience, which were positive outcomes. However, it was also argued at the time that focusing on a problem that someone doesn’t have might create a problem. For instance, if we offered confidence-building workshops to already confident individuals, it might make them doubt themselves. So we could have potentially created problems that didn’t actually exist.

Assuming that there was going to be an increase in children’s mental well-being issues, we have taken action. But what if we didn’t need to? Even if the issues didn’t increase, we still have issues to address. Taking action at that time wouldn’t have solved the problems that were already present. So if we didn’t take any action, those who had issues wouldn’t receive the help they need. By taking action for those individuals, we not only assist them but also benefit future generations. Because individuals with mental health challenges, like everyone else, tend to have families. And this means that their children, and potentially their grandchildren, may also face mental health issues. So even if the problem wasn’t actually increasing, there was still a problem that needed attention. Now, let’s consider a different scenario. Let’s say it’s not true that mental health issues in children and young people are increasing, and we choose not to take any action. One argument could be that things would remain the same. However, as I just explained, this is not the case. The two individuals with mental health issues would have children, and this would result in a larger number of individuals with mental health issues within a family. And then, these individuals would go on to have their own families, creating a cascading effect through generations. So, in this scenario, the future becomes uncertain. Because we were already dealing with a problem, although it may have been relatively smaller back then, it was bound to worsen over time. Now, let’s move on to the next scenario.

We take action.

There are going to be some societal improvements, and some changes because mental health issues don’t just affect your mental health, they affect your education. And that means it affects your ability to get employment later on, it means that it affects your income. And that then affects your housing and so many other things. So from a societal perspective, we would be doing good stuff for the future. Now, what else would be true if we took action is that people will be happier. And that’s nice. You know, it would just be nice for people to be happier and have more fun. We would see that there would be less impact on family dynamics, or at least the impact would be a positive one. And maybe that means that there would be a reduced number of divorces and separations. Perhaps the societal stuff would have a reductive impact on crime in your local community.

So imagine now we haven’t taken any action to address this mental health crisis. What are the consequences? It’s going to cost us even more in the long run. It’s frustrating, isn’t it? We thought we were saving money, but now we’ll have to spend a lot more on the cleanup. And all the negative things – crime, family breakups, drugs, alcoholism, dependency, unemployment, disengagement from education are happening and will continue to happen if we don’t do something about it.

If you visit a doctor to get help with these issues, they might refer you to counselling, CBT specialists, or psychologists. Unfortunately, these services are currently overwhelmed and unable to see people for up to 18 months in some cases.

Luckily, we can offer them assistance as soon as next week. When you compare the options of taking action or doing nothing, it’s clear which world I would rather live in.

The important part is that we have the power to choose whether we take action or not. Personally, I believe in the potential of what can happen when we do take action!

By Gemma Bailey
www.NLP4Kids.org/gemma-bailey