Tool Box - Assessing Resilience

Tool Box – Assessing Resilience

What is resilience?

  • Resilience is the ability to adapt to difficult situations and or experiences.
  • When a negative experience or “crisis” occurs, it is normal for us to lose some functionality temporarily.
  • This loss or reduction of functionality can be mental, physical or both.
  • Resilience is the ability to ‘bounce back’. A person with high resilience will return to their normal functionality much quicker and more effectively than someone with low resilience.

Domains of resilience

  • There are 5-6 commonly accepted domains or aspects of resilience:
    • Vision
    • Composure
    • Tenacity
    • Reasoning
    • Collaboration
    • Health

Assessing resilience

  • There are a number of resilience assessment scales; some commonly cited ones include:
    • The Connor-Davidson resilience scale; with 25 statements you are assessed by how well you respond to disruptions to your normal
    • The Brief Resilience scale uses 6 statements to assess your ability to “bounce Back” after a stressful event
    • And The predicative 6 factor resilience scale. This 16-item scale assesses resilience across 6 domains; adding “Health Hygiene” to the common 5 domain construct

Assessing resilience -Activity

Grab a pen and paper and try the following activity

  • There will be 2 questions connected to each aspect of reslience12 questions in all
    • For each question you will select from the possible responses: Yes, No, sometimes
  • The purpose of this activity is to help you better understand the aspects of resilience and how you view yourself currently.

Vision:

  1. I have a strong sense of purpose
  2. I am confidant that I will achieve my goals

Composure:

  1. I can handle unpleasant feelings
  2. I can recognize my weaknesses and work within my limitations

Tenacity:

  1. I can adapt to change
  2. I tend to bounce back after illness or hardship

Reasoning:

  1. I can focus and think clearly, under pressure
  2. My past success gives me confidence to take on new challenges

Collaboration:

  1. I know where to turn for help
  2. I have close and secure relationships

Health Hygiene

  1. I prioritize getting 7-9h sleep at night
  2. I achieve 150-300 minutes of exercise each week

Activity scoring

Let’s assign number scores to your responses:

  • YES: 2 points
  • SOMETIMES: 1 point
  • NO: 0 points

Your total score will range from 0-24

What Now?

  • Make note of your score
  • In what domain/aspect did you have the highest/lowest score?
  • Let’s use this insight to start building up our Resilience level- Check out the “Building Resilience Education series” for support

I encourage you too come back in the future and re-do the activity

* Note: This is not designed to be a clinical assessment. This activity has been adapted from the previously mentioned literature and is not considered a validated tool

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