Congratulations to our two new MHFAiders (and how we’re using their new skills)

Great news – two of our team members, Fiona and Laura, have now completed their Youth Mental Health First Aid qualifications. Congratulations!

The qualification is taught over two days. It covers the signs of some of the most common mental health issues affecting young people and how to support them to access help. It is described as the mental health first response and is a qualification that is very valuable in schools and workplaces. You can read more about it here.

Our roles mean that we don’t often find ourselves child-facing…other than the occasional story festival or school assembly. In fact, we almost solely work with teachers and leaders. So, you might ask why we have decided to train two thirds of our team as Youth MHFAiders. Let us explain…

Understanding the issue

Our resources cover the whole of the primary PSHE curriculum (Find out more) and within that our lessons discuss and explore lots of mental health topics. From depression to anxiety, worries to supporting others…there is a broad range of age-appropriate content about wellbeing and mental health that children learn about.

Our team has vast experience of working in schools, as well as years of research on the impact of stories on wellbeing. In fact, Olivia is due to finish her PhD on this very subject in the coming months! Training as MHFAiders allows us to keep our knowledge current and our resources reflective of the best mental health practices. Because, how can we ensure The Story Project supports the mental health of children if we don’t fully and consistently understand mental health issues?

Our team is a chatty bunch (in the best way!) and we regularly talk about these topics in team meetings. However, having the Youth MHFAider qualification allows us to focus our conversations and more adeptly look at our resources through the lens of mental health.

Supporting teachers

We want to understand how teachers support their children with mental health, so that our resources match what is happening in schools. If a new practice or piece of research is released, we want to encompass it in our approach so that it is always evidence-based, supportive and based on current understanding.

Hearing the other professionals on the course, many of whom were based in school settings, talk about their experiences of supporting children’s mental health was very powerful. Our whole team has experience of this based on our own roles within schools and could empathize with the our course-mates. To hear recent examples and current takes on how some of the triggers for mental health issues are changing (for example, the impact of Covid, social media or the rise of toxic-masculinity) was very impactful. These types of conversations help us to understand the changing landscape of challenge that teachers face, and issues that children are experiencing right now.

A great example of how we can use this new found knowledge to better support teachers is in how we frame conversations that deal with mental illness. Thinking about the book ‘The Colour Thief’ which we use in Year 5 to talk about depression, we can take MHFA England‘s ALGEE action plan and use that knowledge to ensure our approach would support a child during a similar experience.

The ALGEE action plan is a useful tool for MHFAiders as a way of assessing and supporting a young person experiencing a mental health issue. Thinking about these ideas, we looked at the structure and content of ‘The Colour Thief’ lessons and were very happy to see that they would indeed support a child affected by the issues raised in the story. For example, the lessons help children to understand what depression might look like (A – Assess), how to show respect to somebody experiencing mental illness (L – Listen), how to support somebody with mental illness (G – Give Support) and what support is available from a variety of sources (E – Encourage professional help and E – Encourage support from others).

We already loved this unit of work for its power to help children understand the very complex topic of mental illness. Knowing that it also supports children from a MHFAider perspective is the cherry on the cake.

Safeguarding

Safeguarding is incredibly important to us. Completing the MHFAider course has timed nicely with the introduction of a new role at The Story Project, ‘Designated Safeguarding Officer’ which has been taken on by Fiona.

Support for robust safeguarding practices in schools is entwined in everything we create. A core feature of our lessons, and of the PSHE curriculum as a whole, is on encouraging children to think about what unsafe relationships and situations look like, how to deal with them and how to get help. Our lessons support children to:

– Understand themselves; their likes, dislikes and what makes them who they are

– Understand and name emotions, so they can explain how they are feeling

– Advocate for themselves in times of need

– Know where to get help from

– Know what to do in an emergency

– Look out for their friends and family

– Be active bystanders

– Show empathy and respect for others

And lots more!

This knowledge supports better wellbeing and mental health, which in turn supports safeguarding practices.

What we did next

Following the qualification, we have used our new found knowledge to further consolidate and check our content. For example, we have:

– Begun creating ‘top tips’ guides for teachers on how to talk about complex issues e.g. grief

– Begun creating letters for parents about each of our units, so that families are aware of learning and can continue the conversations at home if they wish

– Checked our use of language about mental health to ensure it didn’t perpetuate any stereotypes or cause harm

– Published our safeguarding overview for our member schools, with details on our internal safeguarding procedures

– Reviewed our ‘Settle’ activities to ensure they matched current advice on self-regulation strategies