Cyber Safety and Bullying Prevention Programs

Running head: PORTFOLIO
Portfolio
Name of the student:
Name of the University:
Author’s note

1PORTFOLIO
Introduction with problem statement:
Bullying and victimization is a global health concern that disproportionately affects
adolescents or teenagers across the world. The statistics on prevalence of bullying in Australia
suggest that one in every four year 4 to year 9 Australian students report being bullied in schools.
Peers play a central role in bullying process and 72% of schools report at least incident of
bullying in the previous year (bullyingnoway.gov.au, 2015). It occurs in several forms such as
verbal, physical, emotion and psychosocial bullying. The main risk factors that increase risk of
bullying for some teenager groups include being female, being overweight, poor socioeconomic
status, poor social skills and belonging to a minority group. The experience of bullying is
associated with negative mental health for the victims such as depression, anxiety, sadness, self-
harm and even suicidal attempts (Alavi et al., 2015). Evidence also suggests that school bullying
is associated with negative impact on self-esteem and many teenagers feel ashamed of
themselves (Wang et al., 2018). As this is associated with risk of psychiatric disorders for
teenagers, identifying ways to support victims of bullying and empowering them to lead a
dignified life is important. Hence, the key problem that is a focus for this paper is poor mental
health and self-esteem in adolescents because of bullying and identifying how to support these
children to overcome negative effects of bullying.
Achievable outcomes:
To reduce the problem of poor mental health for adolescents experiencing bullying, it is
expected to achieve the following outcomes for the victims:
 Reduce negative perception related to bullying
 Empower victim to raise their self-respect and turn their weakness into strengths

2PORTFOLIO
 Increase their capability to engage in activities that reduces negative emotional outcomes
Program 1:
Overview: The first program or mental health initiative that has been found to focus on reducing
negative mental health outcomes for teenagers experiencing bullying includes the Victorian anti-
bullying and mental health initiative. It is a program that was launched in 2016 with about $4.8
million investment in mental health support a dedicated suicide prevention program. As majority
teenagers experience bullying in schools, this program provides schools with tools and resource
to empower students and encourage them to speak out when they experience or see bullying
(Victorian State Government, 2016).
Aim: The key aim of the program was to build a culture of respect in schools and empower all
students to stand up against bullying.
Relation with outcomes: This program or initiative is related to the person-first approach as it is
focussing on empowering victims of bullying by developing a culture where all students stand up
and speak up against bullying. Not only does the intervention provide a scope to understand the
direct experiences of the victim and walking with the victims, it is directly focussing on
supporting the victims of abuse by offering mental health services and behavioural programs to
them (Luke, Miller & McAuliffe, 2019). Hence, as the person first approach involves attention to
the person first who is involved in any problem, any initiative that supports such individuals to
regain back their ability and skills to counteract problem is relevant to person first approach.
There are several initiatives that show the effectiveness of the program in directly
addressing mental health issues for victims of bullying. For example, the mental health services
under this program give schools the guidance to promote mental health and refer students to the