STrong Adolescents: Resilient Recovery Tool
STARRT is a resilience tool to help and support adolescents to begin making sense of what is happening around them after tough times such as a climate disaster. It helps adolescents to process their thoughts, feelings and actions. It also encourages connection between caregiver and adolescent.
STARRT has been designed with adolescents, for adolescents and is informed by evidence-based psychological and wellbeing principles. It is a universal resource that includes a mix of fun activities and games, psychoeducation, psychosocial CBT informed activities (like what teens learn at school), mindfulness and prompts to facilitate conversations with peers and/or adults they trust … and so much more.
Many adolescents may feel like they don’t know where or how to start a conversation with an adult or peer that they trust, so the STARRT Cards can be completed independently by the teen and then they can tear them off and hand them to an adult or peer that they trust. This starts the conversation with no or minimal need for the adolescent to talk.
STARRT does not replace the importance of caregivers and mental health professionals, it is simply a starting place for teens to begin their own, unique recovery after something hard has happened.
For Adolescents
This video explains what STARRT is and how STARRT might be able to help teens better understand their thoughts, feelings and behaviours, so that they can begin to make sense of what is happening around them.
Evidence-based online programs are freely available, to support you:
Kids Helpline: call 1800 55 1800 or WebChat (5-25 years) or check out their specific teen pages
| Online Programs | Age | Description |
|---|---|---|
| The BRAVE program | 3-17 years | Interactive, online treatment program for child and adolescent anxiety. |
| Momentum (momentumhub.org.au) |
7-17 years | Tailored online treatment programs to help children and adolescents learn new ways to cope with feelings of anxiety and/or unhappiness, sleep difficulties, and substance use. |
Check out even more extra supports at the bottom of this page.
For Parents
This video talks about how STARRT can be helpful to assist parents to have a supportive, empathetic conversation with their teen about their thoughts, feelings and behaviours.
It is important to remember, that STARRT is designed to increase teen coping strategies and support them to have a conversation with an adult they trust. But sometimes, for some people, these sorts of activities (like journalling, drawing, tuning into thoughts & emotions, problem solving etc.) may feel a bit too much.
That’s okay if that happens – your teen can:
- take a break and come back later
- do the bits they like & the ones that help them to feel calm
- do some activities on the Calm-A-Llama card
- do STARRT with a friend or adult they trust
- stop doing the activities & talk to an adult they trust
- check out some extra supports in the teen section on this page.
Parenting and mental health
- Positive Parenting – For Parents with teens
- Positive parenting (Triple P)
- Emerging Minds – Advancing Australian children’s mental health
- Tuning in to Kids for Parents
- Parent help lines: The Raising Children Network has a comprehensive list of parent helplines and hotlines
- Emerging Minds: Provides useful resources and information to help build support networks for you and your child.
How to Get Access to STARRT
If you would like to get STARRT for your teen or a teen you know, please complete this STARRT Form below and one of our STARRT team members will get in contact with you.
Extra support
If things don’t settle down and your stress gets worse, interferes with daily life, or affects relationships at home, school, work or sport (extra-curricular activities), extra support and/or specialised professional support may be helpful.
Do you need immediate help?
Call Triple Zero (000) if someone’s life is in immediate danger.
More places you can go to get support
- Kids Helpline: call 1800 55 1800 or WebChat (5-25 years) or teen pages
- Lifeline: call 13 11 14, text 0477 13 11 14 or try Online Chat (all ages)
- Beyond Blue: call 1300 22 4636 or Webchat Support Service (all ages)
- 13YARN: call 13 92 76 to talk with an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Crisis Supporter
- QLife: call 1800 184 527 or Chat (qlife.org.au) for LGBTIQ+ peer support (3pm-9pm).
- 1800RESPECT: call 1800 737 732 or text 0458 737 732, chat online or video call via the 1800RESPECT website for people impacted by domestic, family or sexual violence.
Community supports for mental health
- Headspace: Australia’s National Youth Mental Health Foundation, providing early intervention mental health services (12-25 year olds).
- Child and Youth Mental Health Services: free public mental health service for children and young people (0-18 years) with severe or complex mental health needs.
- Child health Service: offers universal child health clinics and parenting advice and support.
- Youth mental health professionals:
Need help finding support?
Healthdirect’s National Health Services Directory can help you to find a GP, counsellor, psychologist or other health professional in your local area.
Medicare Mental Health: National mental health website to help navigate and connect to mental health and wellbeing services. For support options that might be relevant for your family’s background or identity try:
- Support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
- Support for people from different cultural backgrounds
- LGBTIQA+ people | Medicare Mental Health
Online information and intervention programs
Trauma