There are rising rates of depression, anxiety and self-harm in young people with an ever increasing number of students struggling to cope with their mental health. As part of World Mental Health Day, we hosted several external agencies who ran workshops with students on topics such as:-
• Anger Management
• Coping with stress and anxiety
• Suicide awareness
• The teenage brain and risk taking behaviours
• Bereavement and grief
• Relationships and domestic violence
• Peer support and self-help strategies
Good mental health is fundamental to be able to thrive in life, so whilst some of these topics were difficult for students, they were necessary in order to help them understand how to tackle mental health issues early.
Our sincere thanks to Safety Net, Young Cumbria, Every Life Matters, Public Health, Child Bereavement UK and Targeted Youth Support for holding these workshops for our students. They delivered excellent sessions and we are incredibly grateful for the work they have done to support our students. We couldn’t have done this without you! #timetotalk #timetochange
We also received some excellent feedback from the day:-
Public Health Team :-
‘I’d like to say well done to you and Whitehaven Academy for raising the profile on mental health and wellbeing, the pupils interacted well within our sessions, were respectful and attentive in both the 30 minute sessions and both assemblies. A really positive experience and hopefully one that will help reduce the stigma around mental wellbeing and encourage pupils to talk’
Child Bereavement UK:-
‘It was great to be part of Whitehaven Academy actively choosing to teach your pupils about healthy mental and emotional health and wellbeing! Without this in place, students are unable to fully access the curriculum’
‘Every class group had different needs and it was a privilege to be part of their shared learning. Facilitating their varied and thought-provoking discussions was heart-warming. Hearing one of your students say that he was going to share the ‘Emotional First Aid Kit’ exercise with his Mum, was a real boost, demonstrating that he’d truly participated and understood the content of the session’
Safety Net:-
‘Fantastic to see so much effort from the school and other agencies to promote students wellbeing and recognising that the mental health of young people is such an important issue’
